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“Answer me instantly—do you know anything 
about my Colonial pitcher?” (See pp. 190 ) 
















ELIZABETH ANN AT 
MAPLE SPRING 


BY 

JOSEPHINE LAWRENCE 

AUTHOB OF “THE ADVENTURES OF ELIZABETH ANN,” ETC. 


ILLUSTRATED BY 
THELMA GOOCH 


NEW YORK 

BARSE & HOPKINS 

NEWARK 







Copyright, 1923 
By 

BARSE & HOPKINS 


• J ♦ 



*7 43*7 


PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Aunt Hester Arrives ». * 9 

II. Before This Story . . * . 19 

III. Frank’s Fine Gift . . ... . . 29 

IV. Going to Ryeville . . .... . . 39 

V. Keturah and Her Cats . « .. 48 

VI. At Maple Spring . . . 59 

VII. An Italian Kitten ..... 69 

VIII. The Day Is Planned.79 

IX. Elizabeth Ann Drives to Town . 89 

X. Victor Vreeland . t ., . . 99 

XI. Elizabeth Ann Helps . . ., . Ill 

XII. The Lost Handkerchief . 121 

XIII. A Brave Girl ....... 132 

XIV. The Little Green Trunk . . . 142 

XV. A Hard Lesson . ., ..... 151 

XVI. A Wedding Invitation .... 161 

XVII. A Very Naughty Little Girl . .171 

XVIII. Aunt Hester Finds Out . . . 181 

XIX. Sorrowful Days.192 

XX. Aunt Jennie Sets Things Right . 202 

XXI. Aunt Hester’s Party . . . 211 











ILLUSTRATIONS 


‘ ‘Answer me instantly—do you know any¬ 
thing about my Colonial pitcher !” 

Frontispiece 

“What lovely kitties! You never said you 
had cats” '.. page 53 

Then she stepped into the water . . page 101 

Aunt Hester and Elizabeth Ann sewed every 

afternoon . . w . page 185 




ELIZABETH ANN 
AT MAPLE SPRING 


CHAPTER I 

l 

AUNT HESTER ARRIVES 

Elizabeth Ann smiled at Frank, the elevator 
boy, who was leaning against the great iron 
and glass door open this noon to the flood of 
sunshine. 

‘‘Hello!” said Frank heartily. “Say, your 
aunt’s come!” 

“She has?” Elizabeth Ann looked excited. 
“Then that means I’m going to-morrow. Is 
she there now, Frank? Did she ask about 
me?” 

Elizabeth Ann came home from school to 
lunch and she often walked the three flights 


10 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

of stairs to her Aunt Isabel’s apartment. But 
to-day Frank insisted on taking her up in his 
elevator. 

“No, she didn’t ask about you,” he an¬ 
swered, as he motioned Elizabeth Ann into 
the elevator and closed the wire door. “No, 
she didn’t ask about any one; just told me 
to take her up to Mis’ Wood’s apartment. But 
she said she thought I might dust things a 
little better. You don’t call this elevator dusty, 
do you?” 

He stopped the car and let Elizabeth Ann 
out. She assured him that she didn’t think 
the elevator needed dusting at all, but she 
wasn’t thinking so much about Frank and his 
elevator as she was about the new auntie await¬ 
ing her. 

“I’ll see you before you go?” Frank called 
after her anxiously, as his car began slowly to 
disappear. 

“Of course!” answered Elizabeth Ann, lift¬ 
ing the gold lion’s head that formed the 
knocker on Aunt Isabel’s door. 

“Your aunt’s come!” said Esther, who came 


Aunt Hester Arrives 


11 


to let her in. “She’s with your Aunt Isabel 
in her room. You’d better put on a clean dress 
for lunch, don’t you think?” 

Elizabeth Ann thought perhaps she should, 
so she hurried into the pink and white bed¬ 
room that was hers, and took off the blue and 
white gingham school frock she was wearing, 
and put on an almost new dress of pink linen 
with smocked collar and cuffs that dear Mother 
had made and sent her from Japan. 

Then Elizabeth Ann brushed her hair and 
tied her hair-ribbon again—she had been care¬ 
ful to wash her face and hands before she put 
on the other dress—and then she felt she 
looked nice enough to meet a perfectly strange 
aunt. Although Elizabeth Ann was only seven 
years old, she could do all of these things for 
herself very nicely. Sometimes Annie or 
Esther had to help her with buttons and mys¬ 
terious hooks and eyes, and sometimes the 
hair-ribbons refused to tie themselves into 
good bows, but in the main she managed to 
dress herself without much help from any one. 

She had just finished fixing her hair-ribbon 


12 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
when the luncheon gong sounded, and that 
meant she was to go to the dining-room. Aunt 
Isabel did not like for any one to be one minute 
late to meals. 

Elizabeth Ann came into the dining-room 
just as two ladies entered by another door. 
One was beautiful Aunt Isabel, tall and sweet 
and with a voice that always reminded Eliza¬ 
beth Ann of music. The other was the strange 
aunt. She was tall, too, and very thin, and 
her eyes were very black while her hair was 
gray. She wore a stiff black silk dress with 
stiff collars and cuffs (like those Uncle Ralph 
wore, Elizabeth Ann thought at once) pinned 
with large flat gold pins. 

“Elizabeth Ann,” said Aunt Isabel kindly, 
“this is your great-aunt Hester.” 

Elizabeth Ann came forward to kiss Aunt 
Hester, but that lady held out her hand 
quickly. 

“How do you do, my dear?” she said po¬ 
litely. “Don’t kiss me—I do not approve of 
promiscuous kissing. Does she always wear 
socks, Isabel?” 


Aunt Hester Arrives 13 

Poor Elizabeth Ann flushed scarlet. She 
didn’t know what promiscuous kissing was, 
but evidently great-aunt Hester did not ap¬ 
prove of it. And she didn’t like Elizabeth 
Ann’s socks! They were very nice socks in¬ 
deed, white, with a Scotch-plaid border, and 
Aunt Isabel had bought them herself. 

Aunt Isabel, though, did not seem to mind 
and she pulled out a chair at the table for 
Aunt Hester and said yes, Elizabeth Ann al¬ 
ways wore socks because all the little girls her 
age did. 

“Well I,” said Aunt Hester decidedly, as 
she unfolded her napkin, “shall buy her some 
stockings.” 

Elizabeth Ann ate her luncheon quietly 
while the two aunts talked to each other. Aunt 
Hester talked a great deal, but it was rather 
pleasant to hear her because she talked about 
gardens and her cow and making rag rugs 
and she made it sound fascinating and inter¬ 
esting. Elizabeth Ann had never made a rag 
rug, but she thought she would like to try. 


14 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

When she had finished her pudding, she 
looked at Aunt Isabel. 

“You have to go back to school, don’t you, 
dear?” asked Aunt Isabel. “Have you the 
little box for Emma Spinelli? Yes, that is 
right. This is her last afternoon, you know, 
Aunt Hester, and she has a little gift for a 
school friend. Hurry home, darling, and we 
will all help you pack your trunk.” 

Elizabeth Ann hurried off to school for the 
afternoon session and to give Emma Spinelli 
the little gold “friendship circle” pin Aunt 
Isabel had suggested as a nice gift. Emma 
was the girl Elizabeth Ann knew best in school 
and she did not want to go away without giv¬ 
ing her something to remember her by. 

After school Elizabeth Ann said good-bye 
to the teacher and the other children, and 
Emma walked as far as the corner with her. 

“The pin is awfully pretty,” said Emma 
gratefully. “I hope you will like to live with 
your Aunt Hester, Elizabeth Ann; maybe the 
school at Ryeville will be bigger than ours.” 

“No, it won’t—Uncle Ralph said it was a 


Aunt Hester Arrives 


15 


little country town,” replied Elizabeth Ann. 
“The school can’t be as big as this one is. 
Here’s your corner—do you have to go, 
Emma? Couldn’t you walk just one more 
block?” 

But Emma said that she had promised her 
mother to come straight home from school and 
“watch” her little brother, George, so the two 
girls kissed each other and promised to write, 
perhaps, and Emma turned down one street 
while Elizabeth Ann kept on in a straight line. 

“Emma’s writing isn’t very plain,” said 
Elizabeth Ann to herself. “And I’m not a 
good speller; I think it would be nicer if 
Emma came to see me. I ’ll ask Aunt Hester. ” 

This was a new idea and all the rest of the 
way home Elizabeth Ann amused herself by 
planning what she would do to entertain 
Emma Spinelli when she came to pay her a 
visit. As Elizabeth Ann had never seen 
“Maple Spring” Aunt Hester’s home, she had 
to imagine everything and that, of course, 
made the planning more interesting. But 
though she was so busy thinking, Elizabeth 


16 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
Ann did not forget to stop at the curb of every 
crossing and wait until the big traffic police¬ 
man said for her to go ahead. 

Frank, the elevator boy, was leaning against 
the door again when she came up the steps of 
the apartment house. Frank did a great deal 
of leaning and the janitor often said that if he 
wasn’t careful he might grow fast to a door 
or a chair, but the janitor only said that for 
fun; he and Frank were really quite good 
friends. 

“Took your trunk up for you,” said Frank 
to Elizabeth Ann this time. 

“I have to help pack,” she informed him 
importantly. * ‘ I ’spect they ’re waiting for me 
now.” 

“Well, don’t go off without saying good¬ 
bye,” Frank said seriously. “I may have a 
present for you.” 

Annie, the cook, came to the door in an¬ 
swer to Elizabeth Ann’s knock, for it was 
Esther’s afternoon out. 

“Your Aunt Hester has been asking for 
you,” said Annie, whispering as though she 


Aunt Hester Arrives 17 

were telling a secret. “She’s in your room, 
along with your Aunt Isabel.” 

Elizabeth Ann trotted off to her room and 
found all her pretty dresses spread out on the 
bed, while Aunt Hester sat on the trunk, a 
pencil and paper in her hand and Aunt Isabel 
was on the window-seat holding Nancy, Eliza¬ 
beth Ann’s best and largest doll. 

“So you’ve come!” said Aunt Hester when 
she saw the little girl. “Well then, we may as 
well begin; I told your Aunt Isabel that I be¬ 
lieve in children being useful. You do just 
as I tell you, Elizabeth Ann, and next time 
you will know how to pack a trunk.” 

Aunt Isabel did not say anything, but Eliz¬ 
abeth Ann had a feeling that she was not 
happy. She sat holding Nancy while Aunt 
Hester directed Elizabeth Ann how to fold 
her underclothes and how to place her shoes 
in the bottom of the trunk. She was most par¬ 
ticular and Elizabeth Ann had to take out a 
petticoat three times before she finally folded 
it to please Aunt Hester. 


18 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

“What is worth doing at all, is worth doing 
well,” Aunt Hester said. 

Elizabeth Arm found that all her socks were 
in a pile by themselves, neatly rolled into little 
balls as Cora, the laundress, always brought 
them in the clothes basket. Aunt Hester 
frowned when they came to these socks. 

“I suppose we may as well take them,” she 
said to Aunt Isabel, “for the child must have 
something to wear until I can get her long 
stockings; if it wasn’t so warm, I’d go down 
town this afternoon and buy her some.” 

“But all the girls wear socks, Aunt Hester,” 
explained Elizabeth Ann earnestly. “Some 
of them wear them all winter, too. And I have 
pink and blue ones to match my best dresses.” 

“When I was a little girl, we didn’t think 
so much about our clothes,” answered Aunt 
Hester gravely. “I hope you are not going to 
be vain and talk too much about what you 
wear, Elizabeth Ann.” 

The front door banged just then and Hncle 
Ralph’s whistle sounded in the hall. Eliza¬ 
beth Ann ran to meet him. 


CHAPTER II 


BEFORE THIS STORY 

If you have not read the first book about 
Elizabeth Ann, you must now be introduced 
to her, so you may know about Uncle Ralph 
and Aunt Isabel and why Elizabeth Ann was 
to leave them and go away with Aunt Hester. 

Elizabeth Ann Loring was her full name, 
and she was a little girl seven years old. She 
lived, did Elizabeth Ann, with her father and 
mother on a ranch in a Western state and she 
had never been East in her life until her father 
and mother sailed for Japan, to be gone many 
months, and sent her to visit her three aunties 
who all lived three thousand miles from the 
ranch home. There was Aunt Isabel who 
lived in an apartment on Riverside Drive, in 
New York, and Aunt Hester, who was really 
a great-aunt, since she was the aunt of Eliza¬ 
beth Ann’s daddy; and there was Aunt Jennie 
who lived at the seashore. 


19 


20 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

Elizabeth Ann was to “take turns” visiting 
these relatives, and she had been sent first to 
see Aunt Isabel. The first book about her, 
called “The Adventures of Elizabeth Ann,” 
tells how Elizabeth Ann made the long trip 
by herself, and of the friends she made while 
on the train. There was Mr. Robert, who gave 
her a white elephant which proved to be al¬ 
most like one Uncle Ralph had; and Mr. Ho¬ 
bart, the big, kind conductor; and Caroline 
the maid on the train, and Fred who brought 
Elizabeth Ann good things to eat. This book 
about Elizabeth Ann tells, too, of how she 
settled down to live with Aunt Isabel, who was 
beautiful and loving, but not very used to little 
girls because she had none of her own, and 
Uncle Ralph who was Aunt Isabel’s husband 
and a busy man away from home much of the 
time. But there was Rosa—dear Rosa! She 
had brothers and sisters, too, for which Eliza¬ 
beth Ann had always longed, and she talked 
about them and took Elizabeth Ann to see 
them. 

Elizabeth Ann was sent to public school, 


21 


Before This Story 

because her daddy wanted her to go, though 
Aunt Isabel would have preferred a private 
school, and there she met Emma Spinelli. 

But when the white elephant that belonged 
to Uncle Ralph disappeared, and Rosa was 
accused of taking it, then Elizabeth Ann was 
dreadfully unhappy. She found Mr. Robert, 
though, and he helped her straighten out the 
tangle and Rosa and her family went to Cali¬ 
fornia where they wanted to go so that they 
could live outdoors in the sunshine. Just as 
these pleasant things happened—after all the 
unpleasant ones—Uncle Ralph announced 
that he and Aunt Isabel must sail for England 
and that Elizabeth Ann was to go and visit 
Aunt Hester who lived in the country. 

And now we are back to Aunt Hester, who 
had come to take Elizabeth Ann home with 
her, and the half-packed trunk and Uncle 
Ralph who, you will remember, whistled in 
the hall. 

“ Hello, chickenI” he greeted her, swinging 
her up to his shoulder. “Have you decided 
what you want me to send you from London ?” 


22 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

“An English bulldog, I think/’ said Eliza¬ 
beth Ann, “but I would like to think some 
more about it, Uncle Ealph. Did you know 
that Aunt Hester is here? She came this 
morning—and she doesn’t like my socks!” 

Uncle Ealph laughed. 

“Why I think they are pretty nice socks 
myself,” he said, putting Elizabeth Ann down 
carefully. “I’ll tell Aunt Hester so. Where 
is she?” 

“She’s in my room, helping pack the 
trunk,” replied Elizabeth Ann soberly. “I 
don’t think she likes me very much, Uncle 
Ealph.” 

Uncle Ealph stopped laughing at once. He 
sat down on the telephone chair and drew 
Elizabeth Ann to him. 

“Now, look here, chicken,” he said, in the 
same tone he used when talking to grown-ups ; 
Elizabeth Ann liked to be talked to that way. 
“You mustn’t get it into your head that Aunt 
Hester doesn’t like you, because you might 
think next that you didn’t like her! If we 


Before This Story 23 

like some one very much they always like us— 
did you know that?” 

Elizabeth Ann shook her head. 

“Well, it’s true,” said Uncle Ralph earn¬ 
estly. “I know, for I’ve tried it. You 11 like 
Aunt Hester all right, and she’ll like you— 
why you don’t know how dearly she loved 
your daddy when he was a little boy.” 

“Did Aunt Hester know Daddy when he 
was a little boy?” asked Elizabeth Ann eag¬ 
erly. 

“Yes indeed,” was Uncle Ralph’s reply. 
“He used to go and visit her for weeks every 
summer. And once he had diphtheria and 
every one was afraid to go near the house, 
and your Aunt Hester nursed him and saved 
his life.” 

“Well-” Elizabeth Ann drew a long 

breath. “Well, Uncle Ralph, perhaps she will 
like me, even if I do wear socks.” 

Uncle Ralph said he was sure the socks 
wouldn’t make a bit of difference, and then 
he went off to freshen up for dinner, and 


24 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

Elizabeth Ann went back to finish the pack¬ 
ing. 

She found that Aunt Isabel and Aunt Hes¬ 
ter had put all her clothes in the trunk for 
her and that Nancy was nowhere to be seen. 

“Where is Nancy?” asked Elizabeth Ann 
anxiously. 

“She’s in the trunk, dear,” said Aunt Isa¬ 
bel. “Aunt Hester thought it would be better 
if you did not carry her; I was careful to put 
her in the middle, with plenty of soft things 
around her, so she will not break.” 

“But I always do carry her—she likes to 
travel,” Elizabeth Ann said, trying not to feel 
disappointed. 

“I think it looks foolish to carry a doll on a 
train,” said Aunt Hester. “Do you like to 
make doll’s clothes, Elizabeth Ann?” 

“I never made any,” answered the little 
girl, thinking how large the closet looked with 
nothing hanging in it except her nightgown 
and kimona. “I don’t know how to sew, Aunt 
Hester.” 

“I’ll see that you learn,” promised Aunt 


Before This Story 25 

Hester, closing the lid of the trunk with a 
bang. “ Perhaps you can piece a quilt this 
s umm er.” 

Elizabeth Ann sat next to Uncle Ralph at 
the dinner table that night and as she listened 
to the others talking, the little girl suddenly 
thought how dear and kind and loving Uncle 
Ralph and Aunt Isabel were, almost as nice 
as her daddy and mother, in fact. She thought 
that she did not want to go to Ryeville with 
Aunt Hester at all in the morning. Every¬ 
thing would be strange. 

“Uncle Ralph?” she whispered, when Aunt 
Hester was speaking to Aunt Isabel. 4 ‘Uncle 
Ralph?” 

“Yes, dear, what is it?” he answered softly. 

“Couldn’t I go to London, too?” whispered 
Elizabeth Ann. “I wouldn’t take up very 
much room; and I will be as good as I can be! ” 

“What are you two whispering about?” 
said Aunt Isabel, laughing. 

“When I was a little girl I wasn’t allowed 
to whisper when other people were present,” 
said Aunt Hester. 


26 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

“Please excuse us,” dear Uncle Ralph said 
politely. “We were only trying not to dis¬ 
turb your conversation.” 

Then he asked Aunt Hester if she wouldn’t 
have more asparagus and never told what 
Elizabeth Ann had said to him. He was cer¬ 
tainly the best uncle! 

But after dinner, though he had to go down 
town, to a directors’ meeting, he explained, 
he found time to tell Elizabeth Ann that she 
wouldn’t like it if she did go to London with 
them. 

“You would likely be seasick, and that’s a 
horrid feeling,” he said. “And London is a 
smoky, foggy city, where you couldn’t find 
your way alone. Aunt Isabel will be in the 
shops and at the dressmakers’ all day, and I 
shall be rushing about from one place to an¬ 
other. We wouldn’t have time to take our 
little niece anywhere and she would have a 
dreary time shut up in a big hotel room. While 
at Aunt Hester’s, you’ll find animal pets to 
play with and I suspect other children live 
near. You can be outdoors all day long, and 


27 


Before This Story 

go paddling in the brook and have picnics.’’ 

“I never paddled in a brook,” said Eliza¬ 
beth Ann. “There isn’t any brook on the 
ranch. Is it fun?” 

“Fun?” repeated Uncle Ralph, kissing her 
hastily for he was already late for his meet¬ 
ing. “Fun to paddle in a brook? Well, you 
just try it and see!” 

Then he dashed off and Elizabeth Ann had 
to go to bed a half hour earlier than usual 
because Aunt Hester thought she should have 
plenty of sleep to prepare her for the journey 
to Ryeville. 

Aunt Isabel came in to kiss her good-night, 
after she was in bed, and to tell her that she 
would bring her the prettiest doll she could 
find in the London shops. 

“I would like to name her Violet,” said 
Elizabeth Ann, sitting up in bed at once. 
“That’s an English name, Mother told me. 
Will you get a doll that looks like Violet, Aunt 
Isabel?” 

Aunt Isabel promised she would, and kissed 
her and turned off the light. 


28 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

Elizabeth Ann could not sleep. She twisted 
and turned and thought about a great many 
things. She thought about Mother and Daddy 
in Japan, and she thought about Rosa in Cali¬ 
fornia and about Aunt Isabel and Uncle Ralph 
in foggy London. Then she thought about 
Aunt Hester and wondered why she didn’t 
like socks. That reminded her of what Uncle 
Ralph had said about paddling. Elizabeth 
Ann slipped out of bed and trotted down the 
hall to the living-room where she could hear 
the two aunts talking. 

‘ ‘ Aunt Isabel ? ’ ’ she called softly. ‘ ‘ Is Aunt 
Hester there?” 


CHAPTER III 


Frank’s fine gift 

“Certainly I am here,” said Aunt Hester, 
not unkindly but quickly as she seemed to 
speak always. “Do you want anything, Eliza¬ 
beth Ann?” 

The little girl lifted one comer of the por¬ 
tiere and peered into the room. Aunt Isabel 
was sitting on a low stool looking over a box 
of letters, and Aunt Hester sat up very 
straight on the edge of a small sofa, knitting. 

“I only wanted to ask you,” murmured Eliz¬ 
abeth Ann, “if you would buy me a paddle 
to-morrow? I have the money in my purse— 
Daddy sent me some, and Uncle Ralph gave 
me some more; but I don’t know how much 
paddles cost.” 

“A paddle?” echoed Aunt Hester, sur¬ 
prised. “What in the world do you want with 
a paddle, child?” 

“To go paddling with,” explained Elizabeth 

29 


30 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
Ann. ‘ ‘ In the brook, you know, at your house. 
Uncle Ealph told me about it.” 

Aunt Isabel laughed and laughed, and even 
Aunt Hester had to smile. 

“It's plain to be seen, Elizabeth Ann,” she 
said, knitting so fast that her needles twinkled, 
“that you don’t know much about the country. 
Do you mean to tell me that you’ve never been 
paddling in a brook?” 

“Water is too precious to be used to play 
in, out West, isn’t it, dear?” said Aunt Isabel 
kindly. “Little field brooks are not part of a 
Western ranch, Aunt Hester. And now, Eliz¬ 
abeth Ann, you must hop back into bed if you 
want to be up bright and early to say good¬ 
bye to every one before you go.” 

“But won’t I need a paddle ?” insisted Eliz¬ 
abeth Ann anxiously. 

“No, you won’t need a paddle,” said Aunt 
Hester grimly. “Not if you are a good girl— 
and if you are naughty, I’ll ’tend to the paddle. 
You wade in the brook, Elizabeth Ann—take 
off your shoes and stockings—and that is going 
paddling.” 


Frank’s Fine Gift 


31 


“Oh!” said Elizabeth Ann. 

Then she went back to bed and dreamed that 
she was wading in a brook with her shoes and 
socks on and that Aunt Hester was scolding 
her because she did not wear stockings. 

Aunt Isabel called her in the morning, and 
helped her to put on the pretty dark blue 
sailor suit that had been left out for the jour¬ 
ney. Elizabeth Ann had her own pretty trav¬ 
elling bag Mother had bought for her trip 
East, and into this went her brush and comb 
and the last-minute things that could not go 
in her trunk. The trunk, by the way, had 
already gone, for the expressman had called 
for it in the evening while Elizabeth Ann was 
asleep. Two great trunks, empty, stood in the 
hall now, for Aunt Isabel had to pack, too. 
She and Uncle Ralph were to sail for London 
within the week. 

“You have an hour before the taxi comes, 
darling,” said Aunt Isabel when breakfast was 
finished. “If you want to say good-bye to 
any one, now is your chance.” 

Elizabeth Ann knew several people she 


32 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

wanted to say good-bye to. There was Frank, 
of course, and the three boys who were the 
janitor’s sons, Jerry, Charles and Albert, and 
Agnes who had charge of the storeroom on 
the top floor of the apartment house, and the 
janitor himself. 

Jerry and Charles and Albert were all ready 
for school, and Elizabeth Ann met them just 
as they were coming up the basement steps, 
their books under their arms. 

“Gee, you going away?” asked Jerry. 
“Frank said so last night. Where you going 

“To my Aunt Hester’s, in the country,” 
answered Elizabeth Ann. 

“To the country? Oh, that’s great!” said 
Jerry excitedly. “You can have more fun in 
the country. We’re going to move there some 
day and then we can keep a dog.” 

Charles wanted to know if her Aunt Hester 
had a dog, but Elizabeth Ann did not know. 
She had not asked her. 

“If you should find a pollywog, I wish you’d 
send him to me,” said Albert. “I could put 
him in my aquarium.” 


Frank’s Fine Gift 


33 


Elizabeth Ann promised to send the polly- 
wog, if she found one and knew what it was. 
Albert said that some one could tell her—he 
said people who lived in the country always 
knew pollywogs when they saw them. 

Then Jerry said they would be late for 
school, unless they hurried, and away ran the 
three boys, calling “Good-bye” to Elizabeth 
Ann as they ran. 

Elizabeth Ann went to look for the janitor 
and she found him talking to a plumber in the 
cellar. He shook hands with her politely and 
told her that he wished he was going to the 
country to live. 

“ ’Tis a grand time of year to be out of 
doors, ’ ’ he said seriously. 6 6 Will you be having 
a garden of your own, Miss?” 

Elizabeth Ann had not thought of that. She 
hoped so, for she liked to garden. 

“If I find a pollywog, I’m to send him to 
Albert,” she told the janitor. “What do you 
want me to send you?” 

“Well,” replied the janitor slowly, “I don’t 
know as there is anything I would like better 


34 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

than a sunflower; a big, chock-full of seeds 
sunflower. If you have any sunflowers in your 
garden, Miss, you might send me one.” 

Elizabeth Ann said she would and went to 
find Agnes and Frank. Frank was busy 
sweeping out the hall, but he insisted on taking 
Elizabeth Ann up in the elevator to see Agnes 
who was already busy in her storeroom. She 
came out, wiping her damp hands on her apron 
(Agnes was always scrubbing something) and 
she hugged Elizabeth Ann and reminded her 
of the time she had ridden up to the top floor 
on the dumb-waiter. There wasn’t anything 
Agnes wanted from the country, she said when 
Elizabeth Ann asked her, except a letter or a 
postal-card from the little girl. 

“I’ve got a present for you,” said Frank 
as he ran his car down slowly when Elizabeth 
Ann had finished saying good-bye to Agnes. 
“It’s something for you to use and remember 
me by.” 

This reminded Elizabeth Ann of what Mr. 
Robert had said to her on the train when she 
came East, but the present Frank had for 


Frank’s Fine Gift 


35 


her was no little carved elephant but a great 
glass jar full of stick candy! It was the larg¬ 
est jar Elizabeth Ann had ever seen, one of 
those wide-mouthed jars that stand on the 
shelves in candy shops. 

“Pretty nice, isn’t it ?” said Frank, beaming 
with pleasure as he put the heavy glass thing 
into his little friend’s arms. “I’ve a brother 
who works in a candy factory, and he gets 
them for me. Now that candy is all for you— 
I thought you wouldn’t get much good candy 
in the country; tell your aunt it is pure sugar 
and she needn’t be afraid it will hurt you.” 

Elizabeth Ann was delighted with her gift— 
she had never had so much candy in all her life 
—and she insisted that Frank must take one 
of the sticks. She had just put the cover on, 
after taking a lemon stick for herself, when 
Esther came to tell her that it was time to 
get ready for the train. 

“Well, for goodness sake!” cried Esther; 
when she saw the candy jar. “What are you 
trying to do—kill the child? Miss Haywood 
will never in the world let her have all that.’^ 


36 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

“Yes, she will,” insisted Elizabeth Ann, 
hugging her jar closely. “It is pure sugar— 
Frank said so. Aunt Hester won’t mind.” 

But Aunt Hester did mind. Uncle Ralph, 
who had not gone to the office that morning, 
and Aunt Isabel, laughed when they saw the 
big glass jar, but Aunt Hester looked dis¬ 
pleased. She said no little girl should have 
so much candy given her and that the jar was 
too big to carry with them. She wanted Eliz¬ 
abeth Ann to take out two sticks and leave the 
rest. 

“Frank gave it to me,” said Elizabeth Ann, 
beginning to cry. “I don’t think it’s nice not 
to take things people give you; he might think 
I didn’t like it. And it’s pure sugar!” 

Uncle Ralph said something to Aunt Hester 
in a low tone. 

“You’re much too big a girl to cry over 
such a trifle, Elizabeth Ann,” declared Aunt 
Hester briskly. “However, I should not like 
you to hurt any one’s feelings and, as you say, 
the elevator boy might feel hurt if you left his 
gift. But if you take that big jar you mustn’t 


Frank’s Fine Gift 


37 


expect me to carry it for you, and you must eat 
the candy only when I give you permission. 
Do you promise?” 

Elizabeth Ann promised, and then Aunt 
Isabel bathed her face for her and put on her 
hat, and Annie and Esther hugged her and 
kissed her and said they should miss her. 
Frank came up to get Aunt Hester’s bag and 
the bag that belonged to Elizabeth Ann, and 
the two aunts went ahead, Elizabeth Ann and 
Uncle Ealph following them. Elizabeth Ann 
carried her precious candy jar for she would 
not let Uncle Ealph carry it even as far as the 
elevator. 

Aunt Isabel’s shiny limousine was drawn up 
at the curb and Thomas the chauffeur opened 
the door as he saw them coming out. Aunt 
Isabel had her hat on and was going to the 
station with them, but Uncle Ealph had to 
stay in the apartment to wait for a telephone 
caU. 

Aunt Hester and Aunt Isabel went right to 
the automobile and Thomas helped them in, 
but Uncle Ealph stopped at the foot of the 


38 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

steps and suddenly lifted Elizabeth Ann to the 
broad coping that was on either side of the 
marble entrance. 

“Kiss me now, sweetheart,” he said, holding 
the little girl tightly. “And remember this, 
always—if you like some one very much, they 
will always like you. Sooner or later that 
comes true. Say it after me, dear. ’ ’ 

“ ‘If you like some one very much, they will 
always like you,’ ” repeated Elizabeth Ann, 
kissing TJncle Kalph. 

Then she carefully put down the candy jar 
and hugged the dear uncle and then, hand in 
hand, they walked out to the car and climbed 
in. Thomas took his place and started the en¬ 
gine and away they rolled, Elizabeth Ann wav¬ 
ing from the window to Frank who stood on 
the curb waving back until they turned the 
corner and he could no longer see them. 


CHAPTER IV 


GOING TO RYEYILLE 

Thomas was a good chauffeur, but he had 
to obey the traffic rules and his car was caught 
in two traffic jams on the way to the station. 
When they finally reached the beautiful build¬ 
ing, the great gilt clock told them that it was 
five minutes to their train-time. 

“Don’t come in with us—it will only make 
confusion,’’ said Aunt Hester quickly. “Eliz¬ 
abeth Ann and I can run. Don’t drop that 
terrible candy jar, child.” 

Aunt Isabel hugged Elizabeth Ann, candy 
jar and all, and whispered that she would send 
her the “Violet doll” the minute she reached 
London and some stamps for Peter, Rosa’s 
brother, who had a stamp collection. Then 
Aunt Hester started for the station doors and 
Elizabeth Ann had to run after her. She ran 


39 


40 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
back though, to shake hands with Thomas who 
said he thought she had forgotten him, and 
Aunt Hester was almost through the doorway 
when Elizabeth Ann caught up with her. 

i 4 Don’t lose sight of me, Elizabeth Ann,” 
said Aunt Hester. “I'm going to get your 
ticket now, and then we'll run for the train.” 

Aunt Hester was carrying the two bags, for 
Elizabeth Ann needed both hands for the 
candy jar, which was really very heavy, but 
she put them down on the floor and bought a 
ticket to Ryeville and paid for it and put the 
change away in her purse very neatly and 
quickly. 

“Now hurry!” she said and picking up the 
bags started for one of the iron gates. 

Elizabeth Ann kept close beside her and they 
were just through the gate when the uniformed 
man closed it and took down the sign. No 
more passengers might come through till the 
next train was ready! 

A porter helped Aunt Hester and her small 
niece aboard the train, and because they were 
late, almost all the seats were taken. They 


41 


Going to Ryeville 

finally found two, but not together. Aunt 
Hester sat down next to a fat woman who 
was reading a magazine, and she told Eliza¬ 
beth Ann to take a seat on the other side of 
the aisle, nearer the door, beside a young 
woman with a baby. 

The train started in a few minutes and when 
they were out of the train-sheds Elizabeth 
Ann was interested in looking out of the win¬ 
dow. To be sure she couldn’t see very much, 
because the young woman and her baby were 
next to the glass and the baby bounced around 
a good deal, but still there was something to 
see. The little girl knew that they would not 
sleep on the train, or even eat their dinner in 
the dining-car, for Uncle Ralph had told her 
that Ryeville was only about two hours’ dis¬ 
tance from New York city. 

“My, you’ve a big jar of candy, haven’t 
you?” said the mother of the baby suddenly 
turning in her seat and apparently noticing 
Elizabeth Ann for the first time. 

“Yes, isn’t it large?” j replied Elizabeth 
Ann. “Frank, the elevator boy, gave it to me 


42 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

because I am going away to live in the coun¬ 
try.” 

She wondered if she should offer the young 
woman a stick—it would surely be polite to 
ask her to have some of the candy. Elizabeth 
Ann took off the glass top of the jar and held 
the candy toward the baby’s mother. 

“Won’t you have a piece?” she said, smil¬ 
ing. “It’s all pure sugar.” 

“It looks fine,” was the answer and the 
young woman, who had red hair and freckles 
and beautiful white teeth, put in her hand and 
pulled out a cinnamon stick. 

The baby reached for the jar, too, and to 
the surprise of Elizabeth Ann his mother broke 
off a piece of her candy and gave it to him. 

“He loves sweet things,” she explained. 
“Why don’t you eat some yourself?” 

“I promised not to without asking Aunt 
Hester,” said Elizabeth Ann, “and I’m most 
sure she would say ‘no.’ It makes the baby 
kind of sticky, doesn’t it?” 

Indeed the baby was getting more candy on 
his face and hands and on his mother’s coat 


43 


Going to Ryeville 

than he was in his mouth. He put his wet, 
sticky hands on the dusty window-sill and 
then into his mouth and soon his face was 
streaked with soot. 

“He wants to hug yon," said his mother. 
“Would you mind letting him have another 
little piece of candy? He doesn’t fret when 
he has something sweet to eat.” 

Elizabeth Ann took out a peppermint stick 
and gave it to the baby’s mother. She did not 
want that sticky baby to put his dirty little 
hands into her nice candy jar. 

“Isn’t your aunt motioning to you?” said 
the baby’s mother, her mouth filled with candy. 
She had broken the stick and given the baby 
a small piece and put the rest in her own 
mouth. 

Aunt Hester was beckoning to Elizabeth 
Ann, and the little girl slipped out of her seat 
and went up the aisle. 

“Did you want me, Aunt Hester?” she 
asked. 

“I wanted to get you away from that dirty 
baby, ’ ’ replied Aunt Hester. ‘ ‘ Whatever pos- 


44 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

sessed you to give it your candy? Have you 
got anything on your dress ?” 

Elizabeth Ann looked carefully, but there 
were no spots on her pretty blue sailor suit. 

“Well, that’s something to be thankful for,” 
said Aunt Hester. “You didn’t eat any candy 
yourself, did you?” 

“No, you said not to without asking you,” 
answered Elizabeth Ann, trying to keep her 
balance as the train swayed. 

“That’s right,” returned Aunt Hester more 
kindly. “You will be like your father, I hope; 
he never broke a promise in his life. Now 
stand here by me for the rest of the trip— 
it won’t be very long, and I want you where 
I can look after you.” 

Elizabeth Ann enjoyed the rest of the jour¬ 
ney very much. More people got on at the 
next station, so many that the seat beside the 
young woman and her baby was taken at once 
and several people were standing in the aisle 
of the car. One of these was a young man 
with a suit-case and this he turned up on end 
for Elizabeth Ann to sit on. She put her 


Going to Ryeville 45 

candy jar down on the floor by Aunt Hester’s 
feet and sat on the suit-case which made a 
comfortable seat and different from any she 
had ever sat on. 

When the conductor came through for their 
tickets he pretended to pick up the suit-case 
and walk off with it and he was much aston¬ 
ished, so he said, to find a little girl sitting on 
one end. 

“Bless me!” said the jolly conductor, while 
Elizabeth Ann giggled and Aunt Hester 
smiled. “I came near taking that suit-case 
to the baggage car; it’s lucky I noticed you 
in time.” 

When Elizabeth Ann had first looked out of 
the window she had seen city streets, with 
automobiles and heavy trucks whizzing up 
and down. Next the train had gone slowly 
through suburban towns with blocks of pretty 
houses and such lovely green lawns. After 
these towns had come long stretches of fields 
with no houses anywhere and no people ex¬ 
cept now and then when those in the train saw 
two or three people standing beside the gates 


46 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

at the railroad crossing waiting for the gates 
to be raised. After a bit several houses and 
stations began to appear and these were the 
country towns. 

“The next station is Ryeville,” announced 
Aunt Hester presently. “Don’t forget your 
candy jar, child. I hope Norman meets us.” 

Elizabeth Ann was not likely to forget her 
precious candy jar. She picked it up care¬ 
fully and slipped down from the suit-case. 

“Could I give him a candy stick?” she whis¬ 
pered, nodding toward the young man who 
had loaned her the comfortable seat. 

“Why offer him one if you want to,” said 
Aunt Hester. “He probably won’t want it.” 

But he did. He was much interested in the 
candy jar and had to hear all about it and then 
it took him so long to decide which flavor he 
would rather have, that the brakeman was 
calling ‘ ‘ Ryeville! Ryeville! All out for Rye- 
ville!” before he had made his choice. 

He took an orange stick and by that time 
Aunt Hester and Elizabeth Ann were going 
down the aisle. Then the brakeman swung the 


Going to Ryeville 47 

little girl from the platform so that her feet 
did not touch the steps at all. 

“There’s Norman,” said Aunt Hester, tak¬ 
ing the two bags and leading the way to where 
a little old man stood holding a fat black horse. 

The horse was harnessed to a low, two-seated 
wagon and as the old man took the bags and 
put them under the front seat, Elizabeth Ann 
happened to glance up the platform and saw 
the young man, who had taken the orange stick, 
getting into a dark blue automobile, with a girl 
all dressed in white at the wheel. 

“So he’s a summer resident 1” said Aunt 
Hester, who had also seen the young man. 

She did not say any more about him, but 
stepped into the carriage. 

“Elizabeth Ann,” she said suddenly to the 
little girl, “I wonder if you wouldn’t like to 
ride up on the front seat with Norman? This 
is my great-niece, Elizabeth Ann Loring, Nor¬ 
man; and if I remember correctly, children 
always like to ride on the front seat.” 


CHAPTER Y 

KETTJRAH AND HER CATS 

Elizabeth Ann wanted to ride on the front 
seat, of course, but she had not thought of 
saying so. Norman said, “Yes, Miss Hester,’’ 
and lifted the little girl in. Then he climbed 
in and took the reins, spread a linen dust robe 
carefully around Elizabeth Ann and clucked 
to the horse. 

“Think you’ll like living in the country?” 
he asked her. 

“Oh, yes, I am sure I shall,” said Elizabeth 
Ann eagerly. “I live in the country at home, 
you know.” 

Then Norman asked her where that was, and 
Elizabeth Ann told him a little about the ranch 
and about Daddy and Mother in Japan and 
about going to school in New York. 

“There’s our school-house now,” said Nor¬ 
man suddenly, pointing with the whip to a 

48 


Keturah and Her Cats 


49 


little white building set in the center of a large 
plot of ground with not one blade of grass 
showing anywhere on it. How could grass be 
expected to grow there with thirty-two boys 
and twenty-nine girls romping all over it? 
They were all out as Norman drove by, for it 
was the noon recess. Some of the children 
turned to stare after the carriage. 

“Is that where I’m going to school?” asked 
Elizabeth Ann, twisting around in her seat 
to see Aunt Hester. 

“Why I don’t think I shall send you at all,” 
said Aunt Hester. “It is so near the end of 
the term, anyway, that you wouldn’t get much 
of the work and it is a long walk in for you 
every morning. There are other things I think 
more important for you to learn than spelling 
and arithmetic; say sewing and mending.” 

Elizabeth Ann was not anxious to begin in 
another new school and she was rather glad 
she was not to have to make the acquaintance 
of all the children at once. She was so inter¬ 
ested in looking at the houses they passed and 
watching the little squirrels that ran across 


50 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

the road and along the tops of the fences, 
that she was surprised when Aunt Hester 
leaned over the back of the seat and touched 
her shoulder. 

“Look across that field and you can see 
Maple Spring,” she said. 

Elizabeth Ann looked as Aunt Hester 
pointed and, across a field and through a bor¬ 
der of trees, she saw a white house with a 
porch and green shutters and a white picket 
fence around it and some cheerful looking red 
barns standing a little back. 

“How do we get there 1” asked Elizabeth 
Ann who saw no way but to drive over the field. 

“The road makes a turn in a minute and 
takes us right by the house,” explained Nor¬ 
man in a funny squeaky little voice that 
sounded odd if you were not used to it. 

Sure enough, the road turned, as Norman 
said, and the fat black horse, following the 
road, trotted sedately up to the gate in the 
white picket fence. Elizabeth Ann had just 
time to see that Aunt Hester’s front door was 
painted white, too, and had a big brass knock- 


Keturah and Her Cats 51 

er, much larger than Aunt Isabel’s, when the 
door opened and a tall, stout woman with very 
red hair and very blue eyes and freckles all 
over her good-natured face, came out. After 
her walked seven tortoise-shell cats! 

Elizabeth Ann was out of the carriage in a 
minute, and through the gate. 

“Oh, Aunt Hester, Aunt Hester!” she cried 
in delight, sitting down on the gravel walk and 
trying to hug the seven cats at once. “What 
lovely kitties! You never said you had cats.” 

Norman, who was helping Aunt Hester from 
the carriage steps smiled, and Aunt Hester 
smiled, too. As for the red-haired woman, she 
laughed heartily. 

“Bless you, child,” she said. “Wait till 
you see the basket of kittens.” 

“Get up from that gravel immediately, Eliz¬ 
abeth Ann,” said Aunt Hester firmly, but not 
unkindly. “You’ll ruin your frock. You will 
have plenty of time to see the cats. Keturah, 
this is my niece, Elizabeth Ann.” 

“I’m glad you’ve come,” declared Keturah, 
giving Elizabeth Ann a kiss. “And I’m glad 


52 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

you like cats. Do you want me to take her up 
to her room, Miss Hester ?” 

“Yes, you might as well,” answered Miss 
Hester. “Norman will carry in the bags. Ho 
with Keturah, Elizabeth Ann, and she will 
show you the room you are to have.” 

Elizabeth Ann put down the largest tortoise¬ 
shell cat she had been holding and followed 
Keturah into the house. They went up a stair¬ 
way of dark polished wood with white spindles 
in a dark bannister. Elizabeth Ann thought 
it a very pretty stairway. Keturah stopped 
on the second floor and led her into a little 
bedroom. 

“It opens off your Aunt Hester’s in front, 
and mine in back , 9 9 Keturah said. ‘ ‘ Your aunt 
says it’s the same room your father had when 
he used to come to see her.” 

Elizabeth Ann looked about her with in¬ 
terest. It was a quaint little room, with pink 
roses on the wallpaper and dotted swiss cur¬ 
tains and bureau cover. A gay patch-work 
quilt covered the bed, and Elizabeth Ann 
learned later that there was a patch-work quilt 




































































Keturah and Her Cats 


55 


for every bed in the bouse and a dozen neatly 
folded on a shelf in the closet. On one side 
of the room stood a washstand, and Keturah 
suggested that Elizabeth Ann might like to 
wash her face and hands. 

“ Dinner will be ready in a moment,” she 
said, pouring out clear cool water into the 
basin from a pitcher with a picture of an In¬ 
dian in a canoe on it, “and after that perhaps 
you’ll want to take a nap.” 

She opened the soap dish and unfolded one 
of the towels and gave Elizabeth Ann a beau¬ 
tiful hand-knitted wash-cloth. 

“I don’t take naps,” said Elizabeth Ann 
hastily. “I’m seven years old.’’ 

“I take ’em, and I’m forty-seven/ 3 an¬ 
swered Keturah. “And your Aunt Hester is 
considerable older than either of us, and she 
takes a nap every day of her life. Are you 
ready to come down now?” 

Elizabeth Ann thought she was, and they 
went down the winding stairway and found 
Aunt Hester waiting in the “sitting room” as 
Keturah called the pleasant room that with 


56 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

the dining-room took up one side of the house. 

“Are you hungry?” asked Aunt Hester 
pleasantly, and Elizabeth Ann discovered that 
she was. 

Norman was nowhere to be seen, but Ke- 
turah brought in the delicious hot dinner and 
sat down with them to eat it. She changed 
the plates, too, and filled the water glasses and 
did everything for everybody very quietly and 
nicely. 

“It’s nice to have somebody like Elizabeth 
Ann here, isn’t it, Miss Hester?” Keturah 
said when she had brought in the pudding, 
with a glass of milk for the little girl and two 
cups of tea for the grown-ups. 

“Yes, it’s nice,” sighed Aunt Hester, “but 
she has a lot to learn, Keturah.” 

Elizabeth Ann blushed. 

“Don’t you go to school?” Keturah said to 
her. 

“She went in the city,” said Aunt Hester 
before Elizabeth Ann could reply, “but I’m 
not going to send her here. School closes in 
another month and I can teach her more use- 


Keturah and Her Cats 57 

ful things than Miss Georgia. She can’t sew, 
Keturah, not even doll’s clothes!” 

Elizabeth Ann felt very uncomfortable and 
wished that she could sew, but Keturah didn’t 
seem to think such ignorance dreadful. 

“I was fifteen, ’fore I ever had a thimble 
on my finger,” she said, sipping her tea slowly. 
“Elizabeth Ann has plenty of time, Miss Hes¬ 
ter.” Then Keturah began to talk about the 
cats, and the sewing was forgotten, much to 
the relief of Elizabeth Ann. 

Keturah said the seven cats all had names 
but that she would wait till after dinner to tell 
them, so that Elizabeth Ann might more eas¬ 
ily remember the names. 

“When I feed ’em, you can see,” she said. 
“Where are the kittens? Oh, they’re in a 
basket in the woodshed. I’ll show you those, 
too.” 

After dinner, Aunt Hester helped Keturah 
clear the table and dried the dishes for her. 
Elizabeth Ann wanted to help, but there 
seemed to be no place for her so she waited 


58 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
quietly till Keturah took up the dish of food 
she had put aside for the cats. 

“Come on, now, we’ll go feed the cats,” she 
said. “We ’ll be right back, Miss Hester.” 

They went out of the kitchen door and there 
were the seven cats, waiting for them. They 
rubbed and purred against Elizabeth Ann and 
she hugged them one after another. They were 
beautiful cats, sleek and fat, with yellow eyes 
and yellow and brown and black spotted fur. 
They followed Keturah to the woodshed and 
she put down the dish for them. They ate 
without quarreling and seemed to be the best 
of friends. 

“Now, starting at this end,” said Keturah, 
pointing to the largest cat, “their names are 
Obadiah, Clara, Hannah, Ezra, Nehemiah, Ab¬ 
igail and William. Think you can remember 
which is which ? ” 

Elizabeth Ann was opening her mouth to 
say “yes,” when Aunt Hester came out on 
the back stoop. 

“Elizabeth Ann!” she called. “Come in 
right away and take your nap.” 


CHAPTER YI 


AT MAPLE SPRING 

“Run right in,” said Keturah hastily, pick¬ 
ing up the cats’ dish which was now empty. 
“You can see the kittens by and by.” 

Elizabeth Ann went slowly toward the house. 
She wanted to see the kittens that very min¬ 
ute. Besides, she did not take a nap every 
day, only now and then in summer. 

“Mercy, Elizabeth Ann, don’t dawdle so,” 
said Aunt Hester when the little girl reached 
the lowest step of the back porch. “When I 
call you I expect you to come quickly. I want 
you to go up to your room and take off your 
dress and sleep for an hour or so.” 

“But Aunt Hester , n protested Elizabeth 
Ann, “I don’t take naps; I’m too big.” 

“I take a nap,” said Aunt Hester grimly. 
“So does Keturah. I think you can do it, if 
we can. Don’t argue, but go to your room as 

59 


60 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
I tell you. Lie down, even if you don’t go to 
sleep; the rest will do you good. ” 

Elizabeth Ann went up to her room and 
closed the door. She thought she was going 
to cry, but she would wait until she had her 
dress off. When she had taken that off and 
put on her kimona and slippers and climbed 
on the bed, she heard Aunt Hester go into her 
room, and Keturah walking around in hers. 
Both were getting ready to take their naps, 
Elizabeth Ann thought. 

“Maybe the doorbell will ring and they’ll 
want me to go down,” she said to herself. 
‘‘ Then Aunt Hester will be sorry she told me 
to take a nap.” 

It was so still and sunny in the little room 
that Elizabeth Ann went to counting the roses 
on the wallpaper before she cried and she had 
gone as far as sixteen when something hap¬ 
pened. 

She went to sleep! 

If the doorbell rang, she never knew it. 
Only, of course, no doorbell could ring, for 
Aunt Hester had no bell, but a knocker. How- 


61 


At Maple Spring 

ever, Elizabeth Ann discovered afterward, 
nearly every one who lived in Ryeville spent 
the first two hours of the afternoon napping. 

“Where am I ?” thought the little girl when 
she first woke up. 

Then she remembered, and hopped off the 
bed. She could hear no one stirring in the 
rooms on either side of her. 

“Aunt Hester must be asleep and Keturah, 
too,” she thought. 

So she washed and dressed very quietly that 
she might not disturb them and when she was 
ready tiptoed softly down the stairs. She 
thought she would go out and see the kittens, 
and when she opened the kitchen door, there 
was Keturah peeling something in a bowl. 

“Hello!” said Keturah kindly. “Have a 
nice nap ? You look as bright as a daisy.” 

“I did go to sleep,” Elizabeth Ann admit¬ 
ted. “Could I see the kittens now? Where is 
Aunt Hester?” 

“Your aunt went down to the cottage to see 
Mis’ Heminway,” answered Keturah. “Of 
course you want to see the kittens. Wait till 


62 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

I finish peeling these apples and I’ll go out 
with you.” 

“Who is Mis’ Heminway?” asked Elizabeth 
Ann, watching Keturah slice the last of one 
apple and take up another to peel. 

“She’s Norman’s wife,” said Keturah. 
“You must say ‘Mrs.’; your aunt is always 
scolding me because I don’t say all my words 
right; now you’re here I’ll have to mind my 
P’s and Q’s.” 

“What are they?” asked Elizabeth Ann who 
could certainly ask questions. 

“What are what?” said Keturah, beginning 
to slice the last apple. 

“P’s and Q’s,” repeated Elizabeth Ann, 

“Oh, good gracious, child, that doesn’t mean 
anything,” said poor Keturah. “That’s just 
an old saying. There, the apples are ready for 
sauce; come on, and we’ll see the kittens.” 

Keturah caught Elizabeth Ann’s hand in 
hers, and they ran out to the wood-shed. Ke¬ 
turah sat down on the chopping block and took 
the basket on her knees. Out jumped the 


At Maple Spring 63 

mother cat, a handsome black and white furry, 
purring cat. 

“Her name is Jeptha,” said Keturah. 
“Well, what do you think of the kittens ?” 

Elizabeth Ann looked down into the soft 
cotton which lined the basket and saw six of 
the loveliest kittens any little girl ever saw. 
Three were coal black, two were black and 
white, and one was pure white. 

“You are to choose one for yours,” said 
Keturah. “Miss Hester said so. Jeptha is a 
stray cat we took in this winter—all our cats 
are tortoise-shell, but Miss Hester won’t turn 
away a cat. I don’t know how many we’ve 
taken in and found homes for—twenty-five, I 
guess. All these kittens are promised, except 
one.” 

“Which one isn’t?” asked Elizabeth Ann, 
stroking the kittens while the mother cat 
rubbed against her and purred. 

The babies had their eyes opened and they 
were tumbling over each other in the basket 
and trying to bite each other for fun. 

“Oh, you are to have your choice,” explained 


64 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
Keturah. “Folks just said they’d take the 
kittens, but it doesn’t make a mite of differ¬ 
ence which they get; wait, I’ll put them on the 
ground and you can see better.” 

Keturah turned the basket over and out 
tumbled the kittens, mewing and sputtering. 
Then they saw their mother and tried to run 
for her. They were so little they fell down 
when they ran, and Elizabeth Ann laughed to 
see them. 

“ Could I have the all-white one ?” she asked 
eagerly. “He is so pretty—would that be all 
right?” 

“You take the white kitten for yours, 1 ” said 
Keturah. “I was hoping you’d take him— 
he’s the smartest of the lot. The mother is a 
very bright cat. We can’t give any of the 
kittens away for several weeks yet, because 
they are too young, so you can play with them 
all. What will you name yours ?” 

“You name him,” suggested Elizabeth Ann. 
“I think the big cats have the nicest names— 
did you name those?” 

“Every one,” answered Keturah proudly. 


At Maple Spring ' 65 

“I think they’re rather good names myself.” 

“What will you call mine?” said Elizabeth 
Ann, picking up the white kitten and holding 
him against her neck. “Give him the best 
name you can think of, Keturah, please.” 

“I’ll have to think a bit,” replied Keturah 
seriously. ‘ 6 1 never like to name even a chicken 
in a hurry. Before you go to sleep to-night, 
I’ll have a good name for your kitten; you 
wait and let me think and I’ll find a fine name 
for him.” 

Elizabeth Ann was quite willing to wait, so 
they put the kittens back in the basket, to the 
great relief of Jeptha who was beginning to 
worry about them and indeed had lifted one 
of the black ones and put him in the basket 
herself. 

Keturah had to put her apple sauce on to 
cook, and Elizabeth Ann stayed in the kitchen 
to talk to her. 

“Is this a large farm?” she asked, standing 
at the door which had a glass panel so that one 
could see out. Although it was May it was too 


66 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

cool to have doors and windows open long at a 

time. 

“My no, bow your aunt would laugh to hear 
you,” said Keturah, lighting the fire in her 
shining range. “When Miss Hester’s father 
was alive, this was a big place and even when 
your father was a boy there was more land; 
but Miss Hester keeps selling it off, because she 
can’t farm it. There isn’t more than four 
acres, counting the wood-lot now. Norman and 
his wife do the little farming that is done, and 
I do the housework and keep the chickens.” 

“Where is the wood-lot?” asked Elizabeth 
Ann. 

“Over the hill—I’ll show you in the morn¬ 
ing,” said Keturah, puting her apple-sauce 
on to cook. 

“Is that Norman’s house?” said Elizabeth 
Ann , pointing to the top of a chimney that 
showed through the trees. 

“Yes, that’s his house,” answered Keturah. 
“Want to help me feed the hens?” 

Elizabeth Ann did, of course. She had 
helped to feed the hens at home, and she knew 


67 


At Maple Spring 

just how it was done. She carried the pan of 
shelled corn for Keturah who took a pail of 
water to fill the drinking fountains. The hen- 
yard was back of the wood-shed, and the bid¬ 
dies came running as soon as they saw Ke¬ 
turah J s white apron. 

“Go back, Orlando,” scolded Keturah as a 
handsome black rooster tried to get into the 
pan of corn Elizabeth Ann carried. “Aren’t 
you ashamed to behave so when you have com¬ 
pany?” 

“Is that his name?” laughed the delighted 
Elizabeth Ann. “Have they all names?” 

“Every one,” said Keturah. “You scatter 
some corn for them and I’ll fill the fountains; 
don’t get your dress dirty—go ’way, Lady 
Lottie,” she exclaimed, flapping her apron at 
a white hen who persisted in picking at the 
buttons on Elizabeth Ann’s shoe. “Go ’way— 
you’re a greedy thing!” 

Lady Lottie winked her eyes and gobbled up 
the corn Elizabeth Ann threw down, deciding, 
evidently, that it was better than shoe buttons. 
Keturah pointed out half a dozen hens and told 


68 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

Elizabeth Ann their names—there were Sally, 
and Bertha and Mrs. Potts and Mrs. Pans, 
Grace Darling and Plain Jane. A yellow and 
white rooster was King Lear, and each of the 
others had a name though these, Keturah said, 
were her favorites. 

“Don’t forget a name for my kitten,” 
begged Elizabeth Ann, when the corn was all 
gone and the water pail emptied and they were 
starting back for the house. 

Keturah promised to remember. 


CHAPTER VII 


AN ITALIAN KITTEN 

In the house they found Aunt Hester set¬ 
ting the table for supper. She asked Eliza¬ 
beth Ann if she had been out to see the kittens 
and chickens, “for I know,” she said, “that 
Keturah would show you them first.* ’ 

Elizabeth Ann asked, a little timidly, for 
she was a bit in awe of Aunt Hester though 
she felt that she knew and loved Keturah al¬ 
ready, if she could not help set the table. 

“No, child, you don’t know how I like 
things, ’ ’ replied Aunt Hester. ‘ ‘ After a while, 
when I’ve taught you, you will be able to do 
it without any help from me; tell Keturah I 
think her sauce is burning.” 

The sauce was not burned, however, but it 
had boiled over on the stove. Keturah took it 
off at once and they had it warm for supper 
and very good indeed Elizabeth Ann thought it. 

69 


70 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

After supper was over, Aunt Hester and 
Elizabeth Ann went out on the front porch. 
Keturah washed the supper dishes alone. 
Aunt Hester wore a fleecy white shawl and 
Elizabeth Ann found her sweater comfortable, 
for there was a sharp little breeze. 

It was pleasant out on the porch, and the 
grass, which had been cut that afternoon and 
was not yet raked up, smelled very sweet. 
Aunt Hester’s house was back far enough from 
the fence for a pleasant strip of lawn, but near 
enough to the road so that people passing by 
could be easily distinguished. 

“Where ’bouts,” said Elizabeth Ann, when 
they had rocked a little while in silence, ‘ ‘is 
Ryeville, Auntie?” 

Aunt Hester looked surprised. 

“This is Ryeville,” she explained. “That 
is, the town limits extend to that white pos^ 
down the road. Don’t you see we have a pave¬ 
ment and lights ? The houses are rather scat¬ 
tered, of course, and they were all farms not 
many years ago, but I think Ryeville is much 


An Italian Kitten 71 

better than some of these new towns that are 
all built in one spot.” 

They sat on the porch till the one winking 
street lamp was lit and then Aunt Hester said 
it was time for Elizabeth Ann to go to bed. 
The little girl was anxious to see if Keturah 
would remember to come and tell her a name 
for her cat, so she did not go at once. In¬ 
stead she lingered uncertainly. 

“Do you want anything, child?” asked Aunt 
Hester. 

“Don’t you want me to kiss you good¬ 
night?” said Elizabeth Ann shyly. 

She had never gone to bed in her life with¬ 
out kissing some one good-night. At home it 
was always Daddy and Mother, and in New 
York sometimes it had been beautiful Aunt 
Isabel, sometimes Uncle Ralph and, when these 
two dear ones were not home, there was always 
good, kind Rosa. 

“Well, I don’t believe in kissing much,” 
said Aunt Hester who, whatever else she didn’t 
believe in, surely believed in speaking her 
mind, “but I suppose you might as well kiss 


72 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
me good-night. Keturah will help you undress 
if you need any help.” 

Elizabeth Ann kissed her aunt a little tim¬ 
idly and went into the house. It was dusky, 
not dark and though no lights were lit, she 
could see her way upstairs. She climbed them 
slowly, feeling for the little gold locket she 
wore on a chain around her neck, as she went. 

“I don’t think I like it here,” she said aloud, 
when she reached her room. “I feel queer. 
Oh, dear!” wept poor Elizabeth Ann, burying 
her head in the soft pillow on her bed, “I wish 
I’d never come!” 

Keturah came in in a minute and found her 
crying. She sat down on the bed and took 
Elizabeth Ann into her comfortable arms. 

“ There, there,” she said soothingly, “you’ll 
feel better after a little cry. I know just what 
it means to be a little girl in a strange place; 
goodness, wasn’t I bound out when I was only 
nine years old? You’re seven, aren’t you?” 

Elizabeth Ann sat up and tried to smile. 
Keturah had brought a little, flat, blue glass oil 
lamp with her and this lighted the room 


An Italian Kitten 73 

faintly. There were long shadows everywhere. 
Elizabeth Ann snuggled closer to Keturah. 

“What is bound out?” she asked curiously. 

“Bound out is to be put with some family 
to work for your board and keep,” said Ke¬ 
turah shortly. “If you’re all through crying, 
I’ll tell you the name I’ve thought of for your 
cat.” 

“Oh, yes, please do!” Elizabeth Ann begged. 
“I’m not crying now.’’ 

“All right, then, would you like to call him 
Antonio?” said Keturah. 

“ c Antonio’, ” repeated Elizabeth Ann. 
“That sounds pretty—isn’t it an Italian 
name?” 

“Yes, and he’s an Italian cat,” said Keturah 
proudly. “At least his mother belonged to 
the shoe-maker in town who moved and left 
her; so I think Antonio is a very good name.” 

“So do I,” agreed Elizabeth Ann. “Thank 
you very much, Keturah.” 

“Now you’d better start to get undressed,” 
suggested Keturah. “What is that locket you 
wear?” 


74 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

Elizabeth Ann opened the locket and showed 
her the pictures of Mother and Daddy that 
were inside. And, as she undressed, the told 
her about Uncle Ralph and Aunt Isabel, and 
Mr. Robert who was travelling in Canada now. 

“My, think of the letters youII be getting,” 
said Keturah cheerfully. “From Japan and 
London and Canada. The Yreeland children 
would give their eyes for postal cards from 
those places.” 

“Who,” asked Elizabeth Ann, “are the 
Yreeland children?” 

“You get into bed, and I’ll tell you,” prom¬ 
ised Keturah, “your aunt said not to leave 
the light, and she’ll be calling me unless we 
hurry. You won’t be afraid without a light 
will you?” 

Elizabeth Ann said no, of course not, for 
Mother always put out the light when she said 
good-night. She was ready for bed, so in she 
climbed, and Keturah sat down on the edge 
again to tell her about the Vreeland children. 

“They live down the road a way,” she ex¬ 
plained, “and they are as poor as church mice. 


An Italian Kitten 


75 


Miss Hester gives ’em milk sometimes for the 
baby. There are ten children, every one as 
lively as a cricket. I guess they keep their 
mother busy. And the two oldest are saving 
postal cards to get enough to paper a room. 
They read about it somewhere in a magazine. 
They’ve collected a lot from folks in Ryeville, 
but it takes a lot to paper a room. And Vinie 
won’t use two alike.” 

“I’ll get them some good ones,” cried Eliz¬ 
abeth Ann excitedly. “I know Mother and 
Daddy will send me some if I ask them; and 
so will the others. I’m collecting stamps for 
Peter, Rosa’s brother, now. Will Aunt Hes¬ 
ter let me play with the Vreeland children?” 

“Land, I suppose so,” said Keturah, rising. 
“But you haven’t half seen our place yet. 
You want to see the spring, and Norman’s 
house, and the cow, you know.” 

“And the wood-lot,” Elizabeth Ann re¬ 
minded her. “You said you’d show me that 
to-morrow.” 

“I’ll show you everything to-morrow,” said 
Keturah, stooping to kiss her. “You go right 


76 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
to sleep, and before you know it, it will be 
morning.” 

She went away, taking the blue glass lamp 
with her, and Elizabeth Ann lay quietly for a 
little while. She wasn’t very sleepy, because 
of the nap, but she wasn’t afraid of the dark, 
indeed she rather liked it. She wondered 
about little girls who were ‘ 4 bound out” and 
whether Keturah had liked it; somehow she 
suspected that she had not. Then she thought 
about the Yreeland family and tried to im¬ 
agine a house where ten children lived. 

“It must be fun!” she thought. “There is 
always somebody to play with. I wonder how 
many little girls the Yreelands have.” 

Elizabeth Ann had wished for a sister as 
long as she could remember, so she hoped that 
there were plenty of sisters among the Yree¬ 
land youngsters. While she was planning a 
letter to Mr. Robert asking him for postal 
cards, she went to sleep. 

The loud and cheerful clatter of tin hitting 
against tin woke her, and she found the sun 
streaming into her little room. She ran to the 


An Italian Kitten 


77 


window and saw coming through the gate a 
bare-footed little boy in ragged blouse and 
trousers and no hat, who was hitting two tin 
pails together and whistling as though he en¬ 
joyed the noise. 

“Stop that racket, Victor Vreeland!” came 
Keturah’s voice. “If you want any milk this 
morning, you won’t get it long as you keep 
that up.” 

The boy stopped the noise at once and went 
around to the back door of the house. 

Elizabeth Ann dashed for her shoes and 
stockings and began to dress in a great hurry. 
She was anxious to see one of the Vreeland 
children. Her trunk had not come, so she had 
to put on the same dress she had worn the day 
before. She brushed her hair, but could not 
stop to tie her hair-ribbon. 

She ran downstairs and out into the kitchen. 
The little boy was standing beside the kitchen 
table while Keturah poured milk from a great 
round pan into one of the pails. 

“Why, honey!” said Keturah, surprised to 
see Elizabeth Ann all dressed. “What woke 


78 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
you up? Ill bet Victor banging his pails did 
—aren’t you ashamed?” she added, turning to 
the little boy. 

He blushed and looked confused, but said 
nothing. He had light hair and blue eyes and 
at least a hundred freckles. 

“Elizabeth Ann, this is Victor Vreeland,” 
said Keturah. “You remember I told you 
Miss Hester went to the city to get her niece ?” 
she said to Victor. 

Elizabeth Ann said “Hello,” and Victor 
responded shyly. 

“Ma says much obliged,” he murmured, tak¬ 
ing the pail Keturah held out to him. “I have 
to go now, or I’ll be late for school. She go¬ 
ing?” he jerked his head toward Elizabeth 
Ann. 

“No, I’m not,” the little girl answered. 
“Aunt Hester said so.” 

“Gee, you’re lucky,” sighed Victor. 


CHAPTER VIII 


THE DAY IS PLANNED 

Victor started for the door with his pail of 
milk, but when he reached it, he turned. 

“To-morrow’s Saturday,” he said jerkily. 
“We’re going after wild-flowers; you want to 
come?” 

11 Oh, yes! ’ ’ cried Elizabeth Ann. ‘ 6 That is, ’ ’ 
she said more slowly, “if Aunt Hester will let 
me.” 

“Well, if you want to come,” said Victor, 
opening the kitchen door, “you be at that oak 
tree up the road by half-past nine; if you’re 
not there, we’ll go right on.” 

He went off whistling, and they heard him 
bang the gate. 

“Elizabeth Ann, how you do look!” said 
Aunt Hester, coining into the kitchen from 
the dining-room where she had been setting 

79 


80 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

the table for breakfast. ‘‘Have yon combed 
your hair this morning ?” 

Aunt Hester was wearing a dark blue calico 
dress with spotless white collar and cuffs, and 
a large white apron. 

“Yes/m,” answered Elizabeth Ann ear¬ 
nestly. “I did comb my hair, Aunt Hester, 
but the bow isn’t on. I wanted to see the little 
boy. Could I go hunt wild-flowers with them 
to-morrow, Aunt Hester?” 

“I’ll see when to-morrow comes,” said her 
aunt. “We have a great deal to do to-day, and 
so have you.” 

“Yes, I have to see the wood-lot and every¬ 
thing,” Elizabeth Ann declared. “Did you 
know my kitty was named Antonio, Aunt Hes¬ 
ter? Keturah named him.” 

“Go and tie your hair-ribbon,” said Aunt 
Hester. “And then come to breakfast. Af¬ 
terward we’ll talk about how the day is to be 
spent.” 

Elizabeth Ann thought that Aunt Hester 
wasn’t very cheerful, but there bobbed into 
her mind Uncle Ralph’s last words: “If you 


The Day Is Planned 81 

like some one very much, they will always 
like you.” 

“I must like her very much,” said Eliza¬ 
beth Ann to herself, trying to tie a good bow 
and failing utterly. “Oh, dear, I wonder if 
Keturah will tie me this morning?” 

Keturah was very willing to tie the hair- 
bow and she did it nicely when asked. 

Breakfast was a quiet meal, though the 
cuckoo clock on the wall delighted Elizabeth 
Ann who had not noticed it the night before. 
The little bird popped out to call “cuckoo” 
once for half-past seven as they sat down, and 
just as they had finished and Keturah was 
rising to clear away the dishes, he popped out 
again and said “cuckoo” eight times. 

“What a lovely clock!” said Elizabeth Ann. 
“I never saw one like that.” 

“It was brought to me from Switzerland,” 
replied her aunt. ‘‘‘Now, child, if you are 
through, come into the sitting-room; I want 
to talk to you.” 

Elizabeth Ann followed Aunt Hester into 
the sitting-room and up to the old mahogany 


82 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

desk. Aunt Hester sat down at the desk, and 
Elizabeth Ann stood beside her. 

“I must get you some stockings to-day,” 
said her aunt, looking at her tan socks with a 
frown. “I’ll give Norman a note to Miss Jar¬ 
vis who keeps the store; he is going in with the 
wagon to bring out your trunk. Well, that 
isn’t what I wanted to say exactly; I want 
you to be busy and happy and useful, Eliza¬ 
beth Ann.” 

“Yes’m,” murmured the little girl. 

“It is too late in the term for you to start 
school again,” went on Aunt Hester, “but I 
think you should have some lessons. What 
study was your poorest—I mean, in which did 
you get the lowest marks?” 

“Spelling,” answered Elizabeth Ann. “I 
don’t like it.” 

“We’ll have spelling every morning,” said 
Aunt Hester promptly. “Spelling and arith¬ 
metic, I think; and I warn you, Elizabeth 
Ann, if you fail in your lessons, you’ll have to 
make them up in your play time. People 
aren’t half strict enough with children now- 


83 


The Day Is Planned 

a-days. I shall expect you to spend one hour 
every morning with your lessons. After din¬ 
ner every afternoon you must take a nap, or 
at least lie down; from two to four I shall 
teach you sewing. And the rest of the time 
you may have for play.” 

Aunt Hester dipped her pen in the ink-well. 

“Run away now, child,’’ she said briefly. 
“I must write this note for Norman. Ask 
Keturah if she doesn’t want you to feed the 
cats for her.” 

Elizabeth Ann told Keturah about the spell¬ 
ing and arithmetic and the sewing and naps 
and the stockings, too. Keturah was the kind 
of person you told everything to, and she al¬ 
ways saw the bright side of everything you 
told her. 

“You wouldn’t want to get behind the other 
children,” she pointed out to Elizabeth Ann. 
“They’re going to school right up to the middle 
of June and you must learn so you can keep 
up with them. As for sewing, your aunt will 
teach you to make nice things—wouldn’t you 
like to have a quilt all pieced to give your 


84 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

mother when she comes home ? Of course you 
would! Don’t write her, but save it to sur¬ 
prise her.” 

“Yes, I’d like to make a quilt,” decided 
Elizabeth Ann, “but I’m too old to take naps 
every day, Keturah.” 

“I don’t know about that,” answered Ke¬ 
turah, “but I suspect after you’ve played 
around and hunted for wild strawberries, to 
say nothing of learning to spell long words, 
you’ll be ready for a little sleep after dinner. 
Don’t borrow trouble till it comes up with 
you, Elizabeth Ann.” 

Keturah had a dish of food ready for the 
cats, and she said Elizabeth Ann might take 
it out to them. They came running to meet 
her, all seven of them, and Jeptha sat in the 
woodshed and looked interested. She would 
not go very far from the basket where her 
kittens were. 

“Good morning, Obadiah,” said Elizabeth 
Ann politely. “Good morning, Hannah and 
Clara and Abigail. I don’t remember all your 
other names, kitties, but I will when I’ve been 


The Day Is Planned 85 

here a little longer. Good morning, Jeptha. 
How is Antonio ?” 

Elizabeth Ann put the dish down and went 
in to look at the kittens. They were tumbling 
about in their basket and Antonio was biting 
the ear of one of the black kittens fiercely. 

44 You’re so cunning,” cried Elizabeth Ann, 
picking him up and cuddling him in her hands. 
44 I wonder if I could bring you into the house 
—but Keturah said you couldn’t leave your 
mother yet, so I won’t.” 

She played with all the kittens until the 
eight cats had finished their breakfast. Then 
she took the dish back to Keturah who was 
getting ready to do her Friday sweeping. 

“I haven’t forgotten about the wood-lot,” 
she said to Elizabeth Ann, smiling, 4 4 but I 
can’t go anywhere with you till my work is 
done.” 

44 Elizabeth Ann needn’t begin her spelling 
and arithmetic till to-morrow,” announced 
Aunt Hester from the doorway. 44 Though I’ll 
start her on her sewing this afternoon. You 
may go out and look around, Elizabeth Ann, 


86 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
till your trunk conies; then I want you to 
unpack and hang up your clothes.” 

Aunt Hester had long gloves on and a dust- 
cap like Keturah’s and she was evidently go¬ 
ing to be very busy. Elizabeth Ann would 
have liked to help, for at home she did the 
dusting for Mother and had her own little 
broom and dustpan for sweeping days, but she 
felt that perhaps it would only bother Aunt 
Hester to have a little girl try to help her. So 
she went slowly down the back steps and out 
the back gate. 

“Well, Missy, where you goin’ this bright 
morning?” cried a pleasant voice. 

There was the fat little black horse, har¬ 
nessed this time to a rattling wagon without 
a top, and on the seat sat the little old man, 
Norman. 

“I’m going to look around,” explained Eliz¬ 
abeth Ann carefully. 

“I’m going after your trunk,” said Nor¬ 
man. “Don’t you want to ride along with 
me?” 


The Day Is Planned 87 

“Oh, could I?” Elizabeth Ann jumped up 
and down with delight. ‘ ‘ Could I go V ’ 

“Don’t know why not,” drawled Norman. 
“Ask your aunt, though—tell her I’m only 
going to the station and right back.” 

Elizabeth Ann skipped into the house and 
out again in two minutes. 

“She says all right, I may go,” she reported 
to Norman. “She says don’t forget to buy my 
stockings and they can tell the size from me.” 

Norman laughed as he held out his hand to 
draw the little girl up over the wheel. 

“Are you hard on stockings?” he asked, 
slapping the reins to make the fat black horse 
go. “Didn’t you bring any in that trunk of 
yours?” 

“Aunt Hester doesn’t like socks,” explained 
Elizabeth Ann sadly. “She says I have to 
wear stockings at her house. Could I drive 
the horse ? Has he any name ? ’ ’ 

“Everything at Maple Spring has a name,” 
declared Norman. “Keturah sees to that. A 
critter can’t be on the place two hours, but she 


88 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

has it christened. This is Ebenezer we’re 
driving now.” 

He put the reins into Elizabeth Ann’s out¬ 
stretched hands and showed her how to hold 
them. 

“You’ll be a first-class driver if you stay 
here long enough,” he praised her. “You 
come driving with me, and I’ll teach you all 
the tricks.” 

They drove past the .Vreeland house and 
Norman pointed it out to Elizabeth Ann 
The children were in school, of course, all that 
were old enough to go, but there were three 
little ones tied by long ropes to a tree in the 
yard. 

As soon as they saw the wagon, these three 
youngsters began to scream. 

“What is the matter with them?” asked 
Elizabeth Ann, frightened. “Are they hurt? 
Oh, look, one has the rope all tangled around 
the tree!” 


CHAPTER IX 


ELIZABETH ANN DRIVES TO TOWN 

Norman hardly glanced at the screaming 
children. 

“They’re all right,” he said comfortably. 
4 4 They always set up a noise like that when 
they see a team drive past; their mother ties 
them up like that so they can’t run away.” 

Elizabeth Ann glanced over her shoulder, 
for Ebenezer had carried them past the Vree- 
land house, and saw a woman come out into 
the yard and unwind the rope one child had 
twisted about the tree. 

“They’re a case,” said Norman, chuckling. 
“I don’t know of any children that get more 
spankings than those three, and they need ’em, 
too.” 

Ebenezer jogged along and before long 
brought them to Ryeville, that part of it, that 
is, which was the business center. As Aunt 

89 


90 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

Hester had said, Ryeville was spread out and 
the houses were far apart, but the post-office 
and general store and the drug store were 
built in a row on the same street. 

“You run in there and ask Miss Jarvis to 
sell you some stockings; here’s the note your 
aunt wrote her,” said Norman, taking the 
reins. “I’ll drive down to the station and get 
your trunk and come back for you.” 

Miss Jarvis was a plump, middle-aged 
woman with a deep voice like a man’s. She 
read Aunt Hester’s note, asked Elizabeth Ann 
her age, and counted out six pairs of long black 
stockings without another word. These she 
wrapped up and handed to the little girl and 
then went back to the work she had been doing 
when Elizabeth Ann entered the store. 

“She never asked me to pay her—was that 
all right?” said Elizabeth Ann to Norman 
when he drove up with her trunk in the back 
of the wagon. 

“Sure, your aunt had them charged,” an¬ 
swered Norman, helping her over the wheel. 
“Want to drive home?” 


Elizabeth Ann Drives to Town 91 

Elizabeth Ann did, of course, and as they 
drove she told Norman that next year Daddy 
had promised she should have a little horse 
of her own to ride to school. All the boys and 
girls rode horseback to school in Pompton, she 
said. 

When they reached Aunt Hester’s house, 
Norman carried the trunk up to her room for 
her, and Elizabeth Ann went to look for Aunt 
Hester to ask her for the key. She found her 
aunt washing china at a little table in the 
dining-room. 

“What a pretty blue pitcher!” cried the 
little girl, coming close to the table. 

Aunt Hester was drying a square blue and 
white pitcher carefully. 

“Don’t touch it, child,” she said, as she put 
it down on the table. “You must never touch 
it. That pitcher belonged to the wife of one of 
the Colonial soldiers and is a hundred and 
fifty years old.” 

Elizabeth Ann backed away from the table 
and asked if she should unpack her trunk. 

“Wait until I finish this china, and I’ll help 


92 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
you,” replied Aunt Hester. 4 ‘You might go 
with Keturah now—she is going to Mrs. Hem¬ 
inway ’s to get butter. Did you buy the 
stockings?” 

Elizabeth Ann said yes, and then Keturah 
called her and they started for Norman’s 
house. On the way they passed the spring 
house, a square, low structure of boards built 
over the spring which gave the farm its name. 
There were four beautiful maple trees grow¬ 
ing around the spring and the water was icy 
cold and sweet. Elizabeth Ann discovered 
that, for she had a drink from the cocoanut 
shell cup that Keturah showed her. This 
water was piped to the kitchen of Aunt Hes¬ 
ter’s house, Keturah explained. 

“Well, well, well, so this is Elizabeth Ann,” 
exclaimed Mrs. Heminway, when they had 
knocked at the back door of the plain little 
house almost hidden behind a hedge of lilac 
bushes. “Come right in, I’m very glad to see 
you, my dear.” 

Mrs. Heminway was a little old lady with 
bright black eyes. She reminded Elizabeth 


Elizabeth Ann Drives to Town 93 

Ann of a bird, because she moved so quickly. 
She took them out to her dairy and while she 
pounded out three pounds of butter for Ketu- 
rah, Elizabeth Ann looked at the churn and 
the shelves filled with pans of milk. They did 
not make butter on the ranch and so this was 
all new to her. 

“Stop and look at the cows as you go down 
the lane,” Mrs. Heminway said, when the 
butter was molded and weighed and Keturah 
was ready to go. “Norman is so proud of the 
cows.” 

There were four cows, pretty cream-colored 
creatures, and they came to the bars of the 
pasture to have their heads stroked when 
Keturah called them. 

“What are their names?” asked Elizabeth 
Ann, who loved to hear Keturah’s names. 

“Daisy, Clover, Dandelion and Primrose,” 
recited Keturah proudly. “Don’t you think 
those are pretty names for cows?” 

Elizabeth Ann did, and said so. 

That afternoon she had her first lesson in 
sewing. Aunt Hester was very particular and 


94 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

made her hold her needle a certain way, and 
Elizabeth Ann did not like a thimble at all, 
but she had to wear one. Aunt Hester said no 
little girl could ever learn to sew properly 
without a thimble. Elizabeth Ann was very 
glad when the clock struck four and she was 
allowed to put her sewing away in the little 
basket Aunt Hester had given her. 

“As soon as you learn to make neat stiches, 
I’ll cut you some patches and you can start a 
quilt for your mother,” Aunt Hester said. 
“Patch-work quilts are very nice, and more 
useful than clothes for a doll.” 

She had helped Elizabeth Ann to unpack 
her trunk that morning, and Nancy’s clothes 
had not met with much approval. But then 
Aunt Hester did not care for dolls, you see. 

It was some days before Elizabeth Ann be¬ 
came acquainted with the Yreeland children. 
At half-past nine the next morning, when they 
started on their flower hunt, she was being 
drilled in spelling by Aunt Hester who said 
that it was foolish to let Saturday make any 
difference. Saturday was all right as a holi- 


Elizabeth Ann Drives to Town 95 

day for children who went to school every 
day, she said, but Elizabeth Ann had plenty of 
time for play through the week. 

“I don’t like her, I don’t!” wept Elizabeth 
Ann, pulling on her long stockings Sunday 
morning. 

She meant Aunt Hester for she had forgot¬ 
ten Uncle Ralph’s advice and everything 
seemed to be going wrong. She had failed to 
spell the list of words Aunt Hester had given 
her and they must be studied over and over. 
She had had to take out all her stitches on her 
“practice piece” of sewing Saturday after¬ 
noon. And now, this beautiful sunny May 
morning, she had to wear ugly black stockings 
to church. 

Norman and his wife, Aunt Hester, Keturah 
and Elizabeth Ann, all drove to church after 
breakfast, Ebenezer seeming not to mind the 
load in the least. Every one but Norman got 
out at the church door, but he had to drive 
around to the sheds in the back to tie the horse. 

The little church was well filled and Eliza¬ 
beth Ann enjoyed the singing, but as she went 


96 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
to sleep leaning against Keturah almost as 
soon as the minister began to preach, she did 
not hear much of the sermon. After the service 
Aunt Hester spoke to nearly every one, and 
the minister patted Elizabeth Ann on the 
shoulder and said he hoped she would like to 
live in Ryeville. 

On the way home—and my, wasn’t Elizabeth 
Ami hungry, and wasn’t she glad to know they 
were going to have roast chicken!—as they 
passed the Vreeland house, six of the children 
were walking on top of the fence and bal¬ 
ancing themselves very skillfully. 

“Young Indians!” said Aunt Hester se- 
yerely. 

The afternoon seemed very long to Eliza¬ 
beth Ann for though she tried to sleep, as Aunt 
Hester insisted she must, she couldn’t, and 
when Aunt Hester and Keturah came down¬ 
stairs after their naps, they both read books 
and Elizabeth Ann could not help feeling 
lonely. At home she and Daddy and Mother 
usually took a long walk Sunday afternoon. 

Finally she remembered the cats and went 


Elizabeth Ann Drives to Town 97 
out to play with them. They were glad to see 
her and Antonio went to sleep in her lap, and 
when Keturah came out to tell her supper was 
ready, she found Elizabeth Ann sitting on the 
chopping block in the wood-shed, the seven 
tortoise-shell cats in a circle around her and 
Jeptha purring loudly among the kittens. 

Monday morning proved the beginning of a 
busy week. Keturah was up at four o’clock to 
start the wash and Aunt Hester announced 
that she had to drive to Thomaston, a town 
several miles away, to see her lawyer. 

“You study your spelling this morning, 
Elizabeth Ann,” she directed as the little girl 
dried the cups and saucers for her after break¬ 
fast, for Keturah was hanging out the clean 
clothes by that time, “and I will hear you this 
afternoon. I’ll be back in time for dinner. 
Don’t bother Keturah, and don’t get into mis¬ 
chief.” 

“No’m,” promised Elizabeth Ann soberly. 

Norman and Ebenezer drove up for Aunt 
Hester and she got into the carriage and was 


98 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

off. In the kitchen, which was hot and steamy, 
Keturah was still good-natured, but plainly 
too busy to stop. 

“Why don’t you run up to the wood-lot, 
Elizabeth Ann?” she suggested. “I’m going 
to Mis’ Ileminway’s, soon as I get this basket 
of clothes on the line. She’s going to churn 
this morning and I said I’d help—she can’t 
lift the churn alone very well and Norman 
had to go with your aunt. You go up in the 
woods and play till dinner time. I ’ll call you. ’ 7 

Elizabeth Ann thought this a good plan 
and put her spelling book in her apron pocket 
and started. Aunt Hester had made her a 
dark blue calico apron the first afternoon they 
sewed. 


CHAPTER X 


VICTOR VKEELAND 

Elizabeth Ann knew where the wood-lot was, 
though Keturah had not yet found time to go 
with her. You walked through two fields, 
crossed the little brook, and came to the woods. 
Norman said that in the fall he and Ebenezer 
hauled down wood to be chopped for the win¬ 
ter fires and that Aunt Hester herself marked 
the trees that were to be cut. 

When Elizabeth Ann reached the brook she 
found some one there. It was Victor Vree- 
land and he had a little ragged-looking dog 
with him. Victor had his shoes and stockings 
off and was wading in the water. 

“ Going paddling V’ he asked her, grinning. 

Elizabeth Ann remembered what Uncle 
Ralph had said about paddling and certainly 
Victor seemed to be having a good time. 

99 


100 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
“Is that paddling?” she asked him doubt¬ 
fully. 

“Sure—take off your shoes and stockings 
and try it,” he said, splashing about so that 
some of the water showered on Elizabeth Ann’s 
blue apron. It did not matter much if Victor 
splashed his own clothes—they were ragged 
and not very clean anyway. 

Elizabeth Ann sat down and took off her 
shoes and stockings. Then she stepped into 
the water. It was cold and deeper than she 
had expected. But Victor urged her to “come 
on” and after a minute the water did not seem 
so cold. The little dog ran up and down the 
bank, barking at them. 

“We found lots of wild-flowers, Saturday,” 
said Victor. * ‘ Why didn’t you come ? ’ ’ 

“I couldn’t—I had to study spelling,” ex¬ 
plained Elizabeth Ann. 

“Vinie said she bet Miss Hester wouldn’t 
let you come,” said Victor, paddling about in 
the brook and splashing water on himself and 
Elizabeth Ann and even on the dog. “Did 
she say you could come out this morning?” 



Then she stepped into the water, 








Victor Vreeland 


103 


“Keturah did,” replied the little girl. “Aunt 
Hester had to go to Thomaston to see her 
lawyer.” 

“Then come on up to the house,” said Vic¬ 
tor, scrambling out of the brook hastily. “I 
want to ask Keturah for a name for my dog— 
I only got him yesterday. The post-master 
gave him to me and Ma said I could keep him.” 

Elizabeth Ann climbed out of the water more 
slowly. She was pretty wet and her shoes 
and stockings were wet, too, for .Victor had 
splashed water up on the bank. 

“Carry ’em with you,” Victor suggested. 
“You can’t put ’em on when they’re wet; it 
won’t hurt you to go barefoot.” 

But it did, because Elizabeth Ann had never 
gone without shoes and her feet were tender. 
Victor wore shoes only when he went to school, 
he explained, and his feet were hardened. 
Long before they reached the house Elizabeth 
Ann was limping. 

“Keturah went to Mrs. Heminway’s, ! ” she 
explained as she and Victor walked along. 
“Maybe she isn’t back yet.” 


104 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

“I hope she is,” said Victor impatiently. 
“I’ll never get another chance as good as this. 
Miss Hester won’t let a dog inside her gate; 
’fraid he’ll chase the cats.” 

“But you mustn’t let him,” Elizabeth Ann 
said with alarm. 

“Oh, I won’t, I’ll pick him up when we get 
there,” promised Victor. 

He did pick up the dog when they reached 
the gate in the picket fence, but the cats must 
have seen him coming for they were nowhere 
in sight. The children went in the back way 
and found the kitchen empty. They went into 
the dining-room, but no one was there. 

“I’ll go upstairs and see if Keturah is 
there,” said Elizabeth Ann. “You wait—I’ll 
be right down.” 

She ran upstairs, but no Keturah was in 
sight. She must still be helping Mrs. Hemin¬ 
way to churn, thought Elizabeth Ann. 

Downstairs again she ran, thinking what 
fun it was to patter about the house without 
shoes and stockings, and out into the kitchen. 


Victor Vreeland 105 

And as soon as she saw Victor she knew 
something dreadful had happened! 

He stood in the middle of the kitchen floor, 
looking very frightened. The little ragged dog 
was huddled under a chair. And the blue and 
white pitcher lay broken in a dozen pieces 
over by the sink. 

“Victor!” gasped Elizabeth Ann. 

“I’m awfully sorry,” mumbled the boy. “I 
couldn’t help it, honest I couldn’t. I wanted 
to get my dog a drink, and I couldn’t find any¬ 
thing for him to drink out of. So I went into 
the dining-room and got this pitcher out of the 
dish closet. I meant to put it right back. 
And the dog was so thirsty he couldn’t wait 
for me to set it on the floor for him; he jumped 
up against it and knocked it out of my hands.” 

“Oh, Victor!” Elizabeth Ann began to cry. 
“Aunt Hester will be so mad—that pitcher is 
a hundred and fifty years old. What will she 
say?” 

“You won’t tell?” begged Victor. “Gee, 
don’t tell on me. Maybe Miss Hester won’t 
give us any more milk and we need it for the 


106 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
baby. And if you tell her Ma will lick me. 
She doesn’t know I’m playing hookey to-day, 
either. I always have the worst luck—don’t 
tell, will you, Elizabeth Ann?” 

Elizabeth Ann thought that Victor deserved 
his bad luck but she did not say so. She only 
looked troubled. 

i ‘What’ll I say when she asks me ?” she said, 
doubtfully. 

“Tell her nobody broke the pitcher,” Victor 
said promptly. “Nobody did. A dog isn’t 
anybody. That’s the truth—nobody broke it.” 

Elizabeth Ann stooped and picked up the 
handle of the pitcher. 

“Maybe it can be mended,” she said hope¬ 
fully. 

“I tell you what we’ll do,” Victor suggested. 
“We’ll bury the pieces. Miss Hester doesn’t 
use the pitcher much, does she? I found it 
back of a lot of dishes. She won’t even know 
it’s broken if we bury the pieces. And if she 
does find it out and asks you, you say nobody 
broke it.” 


^Victor Yreeland 107 

“But isn’t that telling a lie?” urged Eliza¬ 
beth Ann. 

“No, it isn’t,” said Victor. “I tell you the 
dog broke it, and a dog isn’t anybody. Do 
you want Ma to whip me, and Miss Hester to 
stop giving us milk? Well, then, you do as 
I say.” 

Elizabeth Ann did not feel comfortable, but 
she certainly did not want Victor to get a 
whipping. As he had said, the pitcher was 
seldom used and perhaps her aunt would not 
discover its loss for a long time. So she and 
Victor swept up the broken pieces and took 
them out in the yard and buried them under 
a rose bush, using Keturah’s kitchen shovel to 
dig the hole. 

“There now, I have to go,” said Victor 
when they had finished. “Bemember, you’ve 
promised not to tell. Don’t even tell Keturah 
I was here.” 

He ran off, taking his dog with him, appar¬ 
ently forgetting that he had wanted a name 
for it, and Elizabeth Ann had no more than 
returned the shovel to the coal-scuttle where 


108 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

she had found it, before Keturah came bustling 
in to start dinner. 

“Mercy, Elizabeth Ann, what have you been 
up to?” she cried when she saw the little 
girl. “Where are your shoes and stockings? 
Your skirts are all wet. And look at the mud 
you’ve tracked in!” 

“I went paddling in the brook,” said Eliza¬ 
beth Ann faintly. 

“Well, go get some dry clothes on right 
away,” commanded Keturah. “Don’t let your 
aunt come home and catch you in such a mess. 
Bring me your shoes and I’ll dry them over 
the stove for you—I should think you could 
go paddling without drowning yourself.” 

Elizabeth Ann had to change her petticoats 
and her dress and by the time she had put 
on dry ones and dry stockings and sandals, she 
heard the sound of wheels and, looking out of 
the window, saw Norman drawing up before 
the gate and Aunt Hester getting out of the 
carriage. 

Elizabeth Ann was not very comfortable 
during dinner. She was afraid every minute 


Victor Vreeland 


109 


that Aunt Hester would discover that the pit¬ 
cher was missing, and she wished she had not 
promised Victor to say “nobody’’ broke it if 
she should be asked. 

After dinner, of course, she had to take a 
nap. She really did go to sleep every after¬ 
noon now and did not dislike the idea as she 
had at first. She wished with all her heart 
that she need not spend two hours on the porch 
sewing with Aunt Hester—who was likely to 
ask her any kind of a question—but there was 
no way out of that. 

“Did you study your spelling, Elizabeth 
Ann?” said Aunt Hester, when they were es¬ 
tablished with their work-baskets that after¬ 
noon. 

“Yes’m,” answered Elizabeth Ann. “A 
little.” 

“A little ?’’ repeated Aunt Hester. ‘‘ I hope 
you are not going to be lazy. Get the book and 
I will hear you before we begin to sew.” 

Elizabeth Ann did not do so badly with the 
list of words, though she missed three. Aunt 


110 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

Hester said these must be learned by the next 
morning. 

Then she brought out a pasteboard box of 
different colored calicoes, all cut in half¬ 
squares. 

“I thought we would start the quilt this 
afternoon/’ she explained. “I will baste two 
of these for you, Elizabeth Ann, and you must 
overcast them as neatly as you can. Don’t 
hurry but take pains, because if you are care¬ 
less you will simply have to rip them out and 
do them over.” 

Elizabeth Ann was much interested in see¬ 
ing how a patchwork quilt was made. Aunt 
Hester basted a pink piece and a white piece 
together and when it was opened it made a 
square block. 

“I won a prize at a county fair with the 
first quilt I ever pieced,” she told the little girl. 
“See if you can’t do as well.” 


CHAPTER XI 


ELIZABETH ANN HELPS 

After all, it was more than a month before 
Elizabeth Ann heard anything about the pit¬ 
cher and in that time she almost forgot it. 
At first, of course, she expected Aunt Hester 
to say something every time she spoke—ask 
where it was, or go to wash it, and find that it 
was not in its accustomed place. But this did 
not happen, and gradually Elizabeth Ann was 
able almost to put the broken pitcher out of her 
mind. 

She soon made the acquaintance of the Vree- 
land children, all ten of them, and of Mrs. 
Vreeland, a little woman who was always 
bending over wash tubs. Victor came nearly 
every morning for milk and though he dared 
not bring his dog, he described him to Keturah 
who named him “Oswald.” 

The Vreeland youngsters, Elizabeth Ann 
discovered, had names that, like Victor, began 
111 


112 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

with “V.” There was Violet, the oldest, a girl 
of fifteen who “worked out” at the minister’s: 
Vincent, who was thirteen and delivered 
washes for his mother; Valentine, who had 
been born on St. Valentine’s Day; and Vivian, 
Vinton, Viola, Valeria, Victoria, Van Buren 
and, of course, Victor. Valeria was the baby. 
Elizabeth Ann thought that Mrs. Vreeland 
was very clever to think up so many names 
beginning with “V” and Keturah thought so, 
too. Aunt Hester rather laughed at the long 
list, but Elizabeth Ann admired them all. 

Aunt Hester did not think that Mrs. Vree¬ 
land was a good housekeeper, but Elizabeth 
Ann confided to Keturah that her house was 
“nicer” than theirs. 

“Of course,” the little girl admitted, “there 
are lots of flies—Mrs. Vreeland says that, with 
so many children, you can’t keep the screen 
door shut; and the furniture is sticky—some 
of it, because the baby will eat bread and mo¬ 
lasses on the chairs. But, Keturah, they have 
the nicest times!” 

Keturah, who was scouring the already 


Elizabeth Ann Helps 113 

white top of the kitchen table, ^glanced at 
Elizabeth Ann. 

“I don’t believe they’re ever lonesome,” she 
said, smiling, “and sometimes I am afraid 
you are. Just the same, Elizabeth Ann, don’t 
spend too much time with the Yreeland chil¬ 
dren, or your aunt won’t like it.” 

Elizabeth Ann knew quite well that Aunt 
Hester thought she ought to play quietly in 
the yard and be contented with her sewing and 
lessons and the cats, but the fascination of the 
busy, comfortable untidy Yreeland house drew 
her down the road as often as she could get 
permission to go. 

“Your aunt never said anything about the 
pitcher, did she?” Victor asked on one of her 
visits. 

“No, she never did,” replied Elizabeth Ann. 
“But, Victor, suppose she should!” 

“Shucks!” was Victor’s answer. “She 
won’t ever know the pitcher isn’t there. 
’Tisn’t like our house—we have to count the 
cups every meal to see who has to go without 
drinking coffee.” 


114 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

One morning Elizabeth Ann walked down 
the road to the Vreeland house wishing that 
something would happen. Aunt Hester had 
driven away as soon as the breakfast dishes 
were done and taken Keturah with her. They 
were going to can strawberries for a distant 
friend who had broken her leg the day after 
ordering two crates of berries, and Aunt Hes¬ 
ter had said grimly that she knew Martha 
Gravis couldn’t lie still and let the bones knit 
if she thought the strawberries were rotting 
in her kitchen. Aunt Hester was really yery 
kind, underneath her sternness. 

‘‘You’ll have your lunch with Mrs. Hemin¬ 
way, Elizabeth Ann,” she had said, as the 
little girl followed her and Keturah down to 
the gate where Norman stood holding Eb- 
enezer—not that he needed any holding, he 
was only too glad to stand. “And you needn’t 
do any lessons or sewing to-day; we’ll do a 
double stint to-morrow and you will not be so 
likely to make mistakes. Be a good girl, and 
don’t get into mischief.” 

“There isn’t any mischief to get into,” Eliz- 


115 


Elizabeth Ann Helps 

abeth Ann told herself forlornly, as the buggy 
disappeared in a cloud of dust down the road. 
“I guess I’ll go down and see Victor.’ 7 

She and Victor, ever since the unfortunate 
accident with the pitcher, had been good 
friends. Victor liked Elizabeth Ann because 
she had not “told on him” as he said, and 
Elizabeth Ann liked Victor because he was 
forever whistling and merry. No one had ever 
seen Victor cross or quiet very long at one 
time. 

“Hey, Elizabeth Ann, where you going?” 
one of the Vreeland children called to her as 
she reached their gate. 

“Want to go with us?” shouted Victor. 
“She can, can’t she, Vinton?” he added. 

Vinton was helping his mother tie a large 
clothes basket to a platform mounted on four 
wooden wheels. Elizabeth Ann knew there 
were clean clothes in the basket and that Mrs. 
Vreeland was sending home a wash. 

“Where’s Vincent?” asked Elizabeth Ann, 
opening the gate and going inside the yard. 

Mrs. Vreeland spread a clean piece of news- 


116 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
paper over the top of the basket and smiled 
at the little girl. 

“He’s working for Mr. French this after¬ 
noon—hoeing his garden,” she explained. 
“Vinton said he’d take Mrs. Small’s clothes 
home to her, but I don’t know whether to let 
him or not; he might get to playing and forget 
all about the wash.” 

Vinton protested that he would be very care¬ 
ful and not forget. Vincent, his older brother, 
usually took home the clean washes and he 
was serious and business-like for he knew how 
much the money meant to his mother. But 
Vinton was younger and fond of play and 
Mrs. Vreeland was afraid that he would not 
do his errand well. 

“Still, there isn’t any one else to send,” she 
said, tying another knot in the string. “Re¬ 
member, Vinton, that it comes to $1.85 and 
be sure and tell Mrs. Small I can do her cur¬ 
tains this week, if she has them ready. You 
can bring them back with you, tell her.” 

“Yes’m,” answered Vinton, picking up the 


Elizabeth Ann Helps 117 

rope that pulled the platform wagon. “Come 
on, kids.” 

Victor, Valentine, Vivian and Elizabeth 
Ann followed him out of the yard. Vinton 
pulled the wagon but sometimes the wooden 
wheels stuck and refused to turn and then all 
the children pushed till they consented to go 
around smoothly again. 

“Where does Mrs. Small live?” panted 
Elizabeth Ann, after she had helped push the 
basket up a steep grade in the road. 

“ ’Bout a mile up the Fernway road—want 
to stop and rest a minute?” said Vinton 
considerately. 

All the children took kindly to this sugges¬ 
tion and they pulled the clothes basket to one 
side and then climbed up on the bank where 
it was shady. 

“Here comes a load of hay!” cried Victor, 
looking up the road. “Let’s make a wish.” 

Sure enough a team of horses were coming 
toward them, harnessed to a huge load of hay 
that seemed to fill the entire road. The driver 


118 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

shouted a greeting to them as he drove by, 
but Vinton scarcely heard him. 

“Help me pull the wagon up here,” he urged 
Victor. “That load of hay almost tipped it 
over.” 

“But maybe we ought to take it to Mrs. 
Small now,” suggested Elizabeth Ann. 
“Won’t she be expecting us?” 

“Oh, there’s lots of time,” Vinton assured 
her, tugging at the heavy load with Victor 
helping him. “Mrs. Small doesn’t care when 
she gets the wash as long as it is sometime 
Tuesday. Catch on to Victor, some of you, and 
help pull.” 

The bank was steep and the basket of clothes 
heavy. Besides the little wooden wheels did 
not take kindly to the tangle of weeds and 
briars that were mixed with the coarse grass. 
It took all the effort of Vinton and Victor 
and Valentine to pull the wagon up the slope. 

“Let me help,” cried Vivian, and she and 
Elizabeth Ann caught hold of the rope. 

The basket was almost at the top of the 
bank when Vivian’s foot slipped. She made 


Elizabeth Ann Helps 119 

a clutch at Elizabeth Ann which caused that 
small girl to lose her grasp and when their 
hands left the rope—slish!—it ran through 
the fingers of the boys and in less time than 
it takes to tell it, the platform wagon and the 
clothes-basket had gone tumbling down the 
bank and lay overturned in the road. 

“ Are they dirty ? Are they dirty V ’ shouted 
Vivian, scrambling down after the boys, Eliz¬ 
abeth Ann close behind her. “Oh, won’t Ma 
scold, if she has to wash ’em all over! Are 
they dirty, Vinton?” 

“I guess not,” replied Vinton, stooping to 
pick up a clean towel. “We’ll pick them up 
carefully and fold them just the way they 
were; I don’t believe any one would know they 
were upset, do you, Elizabeth Ann?” 

Elizabeth Ann picked up a clean white 
blouse and brushed the dust from the road 
out of its frills. 

“I guess not,” she replied doubtfully. 
“Towels and napkins and things like that are 
all right, because you can see where the creases 
are; but how do you know where to fold a 
waist?” 


120 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

“I’ll fold it,” said Vivian. “Let’s don’t 
tell Ma.” 

The boys agreed not to tell their mother, 
and when the clothes were picked up and 
placed in the basket and the paper spread over 
the top again, every one said that it would 
never be guessed they had been upset in a 
dusty road. Still, each child hoped that Mrs. 
Small would not insist on looking over the 
basket before she paid for the wash. 

They walked along quietly enough the rest 
of the journey and presently turned in at the 
gate of a large boarding house where Mrs. 
Small was spending the summer. Elizabeth 
Ann felt rather queer because people sitting 
on the porch stared at them as they trudged 
past, pulling the clothes basket, but the Vree- 
land children were used to being stared at and 
did not mind. 

“Tell Mrs. Small we brought the wash,” 
said Vinton to the fat cook who answered his 
knock at the kitchen door. 

“You-all sit on the steps till I tells her,” 
commanded the cook, shutting the door. 


CHAPTER XII 


THE LOST HANDKERCHIEF 

“I don’t think she is very polite,” com¬ 
plained Elizabeth Ann. 

“Cooks aren’t polite,” said Vinton. “I 
guess they don’t like folks to interrupt ’em by 
knocking on their kitchen doors.” 

Poor Vinton’s experience with cooks had 
never taught him that they could be otherwise 
than cross and hasty. He was used—poor 
child I—to going to back doors on errands and 
to being spoken to sharply. 

“Mrs. Small says two of you can bring the 
basket up to her room,” announced the cook, 
opening the kitchen door a few minutes later. 
“Don’t all of you go—I just swept the back 
stairs and I don’t mean to do that job twice 
in one day.” 

Victor and Vinton carried the heavy 
121 


122 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

clothes-basket upstairs while the two girls sat 
on the porch steps and waited for them. 

“Did you get the money?” asked Vivian, 
when her brothers came downstairs. 

“Yes, but we have to wait while she wraps 
up some more stuff,” explained Vinton. “I 
told her what Ma said about the curtains, and 
she said she’d get them ready and bring ’em 
down to us; we have to wait.” 

There was a tennis court near the house and 
the children, while they waited, were inter¬ 
ested in watching two young women and two 
young men playing. One of the girls appar¬ 
ently lost the game for they saw her hurl her 
racquet at the net and burst into tears. 

“Silly!” said Victor, frowning as the other 
girl went up to the crying one and put her 
arms about her. “If there is anything I de¬ 
test it is seeing some one get mad when they 
lose a game.” 

“Maybe she wanted to win it,” suggested 
Elizabeth Ann timidly. 

Victor snorted. 

“Suppose she did!” he scolded. “Can’t 


The Lost Handkerchief 123 

everybody win all the time—somebody just 
has to lose. Do you get mad when you lose, 
Elizabeth Ann?” 

“Well, once I did,” admitted Elizabeth Ann. 
“But I was very little,” she added hastily. 
“And Daddy put away the game and wouldn’t 
let me play it again for a week.” 

“That’s the right way to do,” Victor began, 
but before he could say more the door opened 
and Mrs. Small came out. 

Mrs. Small was a large lady, in spite of her 
name, and she looked severe. She stared over 
the tops of her spectacles at Elizabeth Ann, 
till that small girl felt decidedly uncomfort¬ 
able. 

“Don’t tell me that your mother has adopted 
a child,” said Mrs. Small, turning from Eliz¬ 
abeth Ann to Vinton. “Or has she taken a 
summer boarder? Either way, I have no pa¬ 
tience with her—ten children ought to be 
enough for any woman.” 

“Elizabeth Ann is spending the summer 
with her aunt, Miss Haywood,” said Vinton. 
“Are those the curtains, Mrs. Small?” 


124 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

“Yes, these are the curtains/’ replied Mrs. 
Small, “but I don’t know whether to give them 
to you, or not; this last wash looks to me as 
though your mother had not been as careful 
as usual.” 

The children looked at each other guiltily. 

“I’m sure she hurried over the ironing,” 
went on Mrs. Small, “and that is bad enough 
when I pay to have it well done. But, worse 
than that, there is a handkerchief missing. 
And that,” said Mrs. Small with dreadful em¬ 
phasis, “is something I can not overlook.” 

Elizabeth Ann felt so sorry for Victor and 
[Vinton, she wanted to tell Mrs. Small that it 
was all their fault—that Mrs. Vreeland knew 
nothing of the missing handkerchief, and that 
the clothes had been beautifully ironed before 
they had been tumbled about in the road. 

“You tell your mother,” continued Mrs. 
Small, holding out the package of curtains to 
Vinton, “that unless she sends that handker¬ 
chief back with these curtains next Friday, I 
shall not have any more wash for her this 
summer. Will you remember that?” 


The Lost Handkerchief 125 

“Yes’m,” mumbled Vinton. 

“I think she is perfectly horrid!’ 1 gasped 
Elizabeth Ann, as soon as they were safely 
past the front porch and out in the road again. 
“She seems to think your mother kept her 
horrid old handkerchief on purpose!” 

“Well, she doesn’t know we lost it,” said 
Vinton slowly, “and as we didn’t tell her, I 
don’t see how you can blame her for thinking 
Ma kept the handkerchief.” 

“When I get big,” announced Victor, “I 
won’t let Ma do washing for anybody.” 

“Of course you won’t—none of us will,” 
said Vivian impatiently. “But Mrs. Small 
has wash every week and if she doesn’t give 
it to Ma any more this summer, I don’t see 
what we’re going to do.” 

“We have to find that handkerchief,” de¬ 
clared Vinton, “Come on, let’s hurry back 
to that bank and see if we can’t see it on a bush 
or something.” 

“I’m most sure I saw it roll out,” said 
Vivian hopefully. 

They found the bank where they had tried 


126 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

to pull the basket up, but no sign of the hand¬ 
kerchief. Elizabeth Ann and Vivian got down 
on their knees and searched under every leaf 
and weed and the boys went up and down the 
road in case the bit of linen might have been 
blown off the bank, though it was a warm day 
without a breath of wind stirring. At last 
they had to confess that the handkerchief was 
lost, apparently for good. 

“We said we’d be home by noon, so come 
on,” ordered Vinton at the end of an hour’s 
search. “I’m coming back this afternoon and 
look again.” 

“I’ll come, too,” promised Elizabeth Ann, 
and Vivian and Victor said they would come, 
with the rest. 

“I mean to tell Ma all about it, but not till 
I find the handkerchief,” declared Vinton 
anxiously. “There’s no use worrying her be¬ 
fore we have to.” 

Warm and tired and dusty, the children 
reached the Vreeland gate before Vinton made 
another discovery. 

“We’ve left the curtains!” he cried. “My 


The Lost Handkerchief 127 

goodness, I remember putting them down un¬ 
der the tree; if any one has taken them, Mrs. 
Small will have a fit.” 

Back trotted the faithful four and found 
the package just where Vinton had put it. 
By the time they reached home the second 
time, Elizabeth Ann knew it was late and that 
Mrs. Heminway would be expecting her. She 
ran all the way to the cottage and arrived with 
such a red face that good Mrs. Heminway 
was alarmed lest the heat had been too much 
for her. 

“I cooked such a nice dinner for you,” she 
told the little girl. “New green peas and the 
little butter beets you like; but I don’t think 
you ought to eat anything but a little bread 
and milk, if the sun makes you so red in the 
face and so short of breath.’^ 

“I’m all right—I’ve been running,” ex¬ 
plained Elizabeth Ann who was really very 
hungry. ‘ ‘ Please, let me eat the butter beets. ’ ’ 
But Mrs. Heminway was sure that Aunt 
Hester would never forgive her if Elizabeth 
Ann should be ill, and she would not allow her 


128 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
to have anything but the bread and milk. Af¬ 
ter that she tried to coax her to lie down and 
rest, but Elizabeth Ann who knew that the 
yreeland children would be out hunting the 
handkerchief, begged so hard to go out and 
play, that she finally won her way. 

She found Vinton and Victor busily scram¬ 
bling up and down the bank where the clothes 
basket had been over-turned. 

“Vivian had to stay home this afternoon and 
take care of the baby,” said Victor when Eliz¬ 
abeth Ann came up to them. 

“Have you found it ?” asked Elizabeth Ann, 
though she knew that neither of the boys 
would be there if the missing handkerchief 
had been found. 

“No, and I don’t believe we’re going to,” 
answered Vinton sadly. “We’ve looked 
everywhere; I know Ma will say I’m too care¬ 
less to be trusted with the washes, for Vincent 
never lost a single thing.” 

“This wasn’t your fault,” declared Eliza¬ 
beth Ann. “It was everybody’s fault, really. 


The Lost Handkerchief 129 

Though I don’t see how we could lose a hand¬ 
kerchief and not see it,” she added. 

“I don’t, either, but it’s gone,” sighed Yin- 
ton. “I’m going over to see if it blew on the 
other side of the road.” 

Up and down and across, the children went 
that sunny afternoon, examining each leaf and 
stick and stone to see if the handkerchief lay 
under it. They even stopped the teams that 
passed and asked the drivers if they had found 
a handkerchief. 

“Well, it’s gone,” said Vinton, mopping his 
face on a grimy handkerchief and trying to 
smile at Elizabeth Ann. “We might as well 
say so.” 

“And will you have to tell your mother?” 
asked Elizabeth Ann soberly. 

“I’ll take the curtains back to Mrs. Small 
Friday and tell her I lost the handkerchief,” 
Vinton decided. “Perhaps if she knows Ma 
isn’t to blame she will go on giving us her 
wash.” 

When Aunt Hester and Keturah came home 


130 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
that night they found a thoroughly tired-out 
Elizabeth Ann waiting them. She was so 
sleepy she could hardly sit up to eat her sup¬ 
per and her face and hands were scratched and 
sunburned. 

“I’m sure you’re a sight,” said Aunt Hester 
with characteristic frankness. “If this is the 
way you look, Elizabeth Ann, when you have 
nothing to do all day but play, I think it is a 
good thing you have a few lessons and tasks 
to do as a regular stint.” 

“I wasn’t exactly playing,” murmured 
Elizabeth Ann sleepily, but when Aunt Hester 
asked her what she had done all day she could 
give no better explanation. 

Elizabeth Ann was anxious, of course, to 
know what Mrs. Small said to Vinton and she 
would have liked to go with him Friday when 
he took her the clean curtains. Friday morn¬ 
ing, however, Aunt Hester insisted that Eliz¬ 
abeth Ann must put her bureau drawers in 
order and she had to wait till Victor came for 
the milk Saturday before she could learn what 
Mrs. Small had done about the handkerchief. 


The Lost Handkerchief 131 

“Did Vinton tell?” asked Elizabeth Ann 
eagerly, when she saw Victor. 

“He didn’t have to,” answered Victor, bal¬ 
ancing himself on one leg and trying not to 
whistle because Aunt Hester did not like to 
hear him. “Soon as Mrs. Small saw Vinton 
with the clean curtains Friday, she told him 
to tell Ma that she had found her hankerchief; 
she said it was underneath a bureau scarf. So 
we didn’t lose it at all.” 

“Then it’s no wonder we couldn’t find it,” 
said Elizabeth Ann sensibly, but with a huge 
sigh of relief. 


CHAPTER XIII 


A BRAVE GIRL 

“Elizabeth Ann,” said Aunt Hester, not 
long after the handkerchief hunt, “I’m quite 
sure it is time you visited the dentist. Nor¬ 
man is going into town this morning and will 
take you. I made an appointment for you 
with Dr. Stone yesterday/’ 

Elizabeth Ann looked worried. Once she 
had been to the dentist, but Mother had gone 
with her. He had not hurt her—much—but 
she had been very glad to get away from the 
office and the shiny instruments that looked 
as though they might be very sharp. 

“I hope you won’t make a fuss,’ 2 went on 
Aunt Hester, washing her best silver with her 
usual care. “I do hope, Elizabeth Ann, that 
you have plenty of spirit.” 

Elizabeth Ann hoped so, too, though she 

132 


A Brave Girl 133 

wasn’t quite sure what “plenty of spirit’’ 
might mean. 

“I won’t cry,” she said bravely, “if you 
will let me hold on to your hand, Aunt Hester. 
Mother let me hold hers and I never cried a 
single tear.” 

“Why I’m not going with you, child,” an- f 
swered Aunt Hester, in evident surprise. “I 
have twenty things to do this morning. Surely 
a big girl, seven years old, doesn’t need any 
one to go with her to the dentist’s. It isn’t 
likely that he will find much to do in your 
mouth.” 

Keturah, who was clearing the breakfast 
table, spoke up. 

“I could go with her, Miss Hester,” she 
suggested, “I need some darning cotton.” 

Aunt Hester frowned. 

“I want Elizabeth Ann to be self-reliant,” 
she said sternly. “How can you expect a child 
to have any character if she is babied and 
pitied for every little thing? Norman can get 
you your darning cotton, Keturah, as you very 
well know.” 


134 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

So when Norman and Ebenezer drove 
around to the gate that morning, Elizabeth 
Ann climbed in beside him alone. 

“Going shopping?” asked Norman cheer¬ 
fully, slapping Ebenezer with the reins. 
“Want to drive?” 

“No-no thank you,” said Elizabeth Anni 
in a little voice. ‘ ‘ I don’t feel like driving this 
morning. Norman, did you ever go to the 
dentist?” 

“Go to the dentist?” repeated Norman, 
“Well I should say I had. There was a time 
when I didn’t do much else.” 

“Oh!” said Elizabeth Ann still more faintly. 
“Did—did he hurt you much, Norman?” 

“Most killed me,” Norman informed he? 
cheerfully. “I give you my word, Elizabeth 
Arm, there was times when I didn’t think I 
could ever get home alive. Yes sir, I know 
what real suffering with my teeth is.” 

Elizabeth Ann, without knowing it, had 
started Norman on a favorite topic and he 
good-naturedly went on telling her of the many 
tooth-aches he had endured, of the teeth he 


A Brave Girl 


135 


had had pulled and of how he had suffered 
at the hands of the dentist. Elizabeth Ann 
could feel her courage oozing right out of her 
small tan shoes. 

“Doesn’t he hurt you now?” she asked re¬ 
spectfully, when Norman declared that 4 ‘ those 
days were over.” 

“Can’t hurt me now,” announced Norman 
proudly. “I had every tooth in my head 
pulled and got a set of false ones.” 

“Oh, my!” gasped Elizabeth Ann, shutting 
up her eyes in horror. “I wouldn’t like false 
teeth.” 

“There are worse things,” said Norman, 
pulling up Ebenezer before the post-office. 
“I’ll wait for you here, child.” 

You see, Norman did not know that Eliza¬ 
beth Ann was going to the dentist, or he would 
not have told her about his tooth troubles. Or, 
if he had told her, he would have told her, too, 
that no little girl ever has all her teeth pulled 
out and that if he had gone to the dentist 
when he had been the age of Elizabeth Ann 
he might never have had the tooth-ache at all. 


136 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
Norman did not tell her this because he did 
not dream she was on her way to see Dr. Stone. 
But if Elizabeth Ann had been frightened at 
the idea of going to the strange dentist alone, 
she was ten times more frightened after listen¬ 
ing to Norman. 

“I hope he won’t want to pull them all out,” 
she said to herself, when she had rung the 
dentist’s bell. “I don’t think Mother would 
like him to pull them all.” 

Dr. Stone lived in a large yellow house close 
to the street. The steps came down to the pave¬ 
ment and there was no gate like most of the 
town houses. Elizabeth Ann knew where he 
lived because Keturah had shown her the 
house one Sunday as they were driving home 
from church. 

A gray-haired woman, wearing a white 
apron, came to the door when Elizabeth Ann 
rang and let her into a cool, dark hall. 

“I’m Elizabeth Ann,” said the little girl, 
not knowing exactly what she was expected to 
say. 

“Doctor’s ready for you,” smiled the 


A Brave Girl 137 

woman. “You sit down in here a minute, and 
he’ll be right out.” 

She motioned Elizabeth Ann toward a door 
that opened into the hall and disappeared. 
Elizabeth Ann walked into a large room, dim 
and cool like the hall, and sat down in a chair 
so high that her feet dangled above the floor. 
All the chairs were covered with white linen 
covers and there was mosquito netting sewed 
over all the pictures on the walls. It was very 
still, so still that she could hear a clock on the 
mantel-piece ticking. 

Minutes passed and still the dentist did not 
come. It was such a quiet room and so large, 
and Elizabeth Ann felt so small and alone that 
perhaps it was not strange that she should 
have begun to cry. One large tear had rolled 
down her cheek and she was fumbling in her 
pocket for her handkerchief, when some one 
came into the room through a door behind her 
chair, a door she had not noticed. 

“So this is Elizabeth Ann,” said a quiet, 
pleasant voice. 

Elizabeth Ann slipped to her feet and the 


138 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
tears came faster for now she thought it was 
too late to escape Dr. Stone. She had been 
wondering if she could not run away before 
he came and found her. 

“I can’t find my handkerchief,” she stam¬ 
mered, trying not to cry. 

“Take mine,” said Dr. Stone, handing her 
a large, soft clean one. 

When Elizabeth Ann had dried her tears— 
though a few more would keep coming—she 
looked at the dentist who sat in one of the 
large chairs looking at her gravely. He wore 
a white coat and his hair was dark, but there 
was something about him that reminded her 
of Mr. Robert. 

“I didn’t mean to cry,” she said. 

“Of course you didn’t,” agreed Dr. Stone. 
“And now that you’re all through, don’t you 
want to see my garden?” 

Elizabeth Ann had expected him to insist on 
pulling her teeth as soon as he saw her, and 
the mention of a garden was an agreeable sur¬ 
prise. She said that she would like to see it 
very much, so they went down a long hall and 


A Brave Girl 139 

out on a wide porch from which a flight of 
steps led down into the garden. 

“How lovely !” cried Elizabeth Ann in de¬ 
light. 

You never would have guessed from the 
street that there could be such a garden back 
of the yellow house. A brick wall was built all 
around it and ivy grew all over this wall and 
made a green curtain. There were wide stone 
walks, a fountain and a sun dial and long 
narrow beds of flowers above which hovered 
summer butterflies. A large dog, asleep on the 
top step, raised his head as Elizabeth Ann 
spoke. 

“This is Rolfe,” said Dr. Stone, patting the 
dog on the head. “He is so old he doesn’t like 
to go down the steps, so we’ll excuse him if he 
doesn’t follow us to look at the garden.” 

Elizabeth Ann thought everything in the 
garden lovely and said so. There were bril¬ 
liant gold-fish darting about in the water that 
splashed from the fountain, and she sat on the 
broad white rim and dabbled her hands in the 
water. 


140 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

“That is a sun dial, isn’t it?” she asked, 
pointing to the gray stone shaft that stood 
where the four walks met. 

“Yes, and can you tell the time by one?” 
said Dr. Stone. “Let me lift you up and see 
if you can tell what time it is.” 

He held her up and Elizabeth Ann, with a 
little help, was able to tell that the sun’s 
shadow was saying “eleven o’clock.” 

“What do the letters say?” she asked when 
Dr. Stone put her down. 

“ ‘I only count the sunny hours’, ” he read, 
smiling. “That means, Elizabeth Ann, that 
the sun-dial doesn’t count the gray, cloudy 
hours; of course, being dependent on the sun, 
it can not keep track of the cloudy hours, but 
don’t you think that a good scheme—forget 
the unhappy times and remember only the 
happy hours, the sunny hours?” 

Elizabeth Ann drew a deep breath. 

“Yes, I do,” she said. “And if you want 
to pull my teeth now, let’s go in and do it.” 

“That’s my brave girl,” cried Dr. Stone. 
“We’ll go in, dear, but we won’t pull any of 


A Brave Girl 141 

your little white teeth; I doubt if you have 
any work for me to do at all.” 

And, as it turned out, he was right. Eliza¬ 
beth Ann felt a shaky feeling in her knees 
at the sight of the chair beside the tray of 
shining instruments and when Dr. Stone 
fastened a white “bib” about her neck she 
found it hard to smile back at him. He told 
her to open her mouth and picked up a little 
mirror. 

“Nothing needed but a little cleaning,” he 
said at the end of his examination. “You 
won’t mind that, Elizabeth Ann, and if you 
take as good care of your teeth, as you seem 
to have done so far, you need never be afraid 
to go and see the dentist, child.” 

Elizabeth Ann, far from minding the clean¬ 
ing, rather enjoyed the brushing and polishing 
and when it was over and Dr. Stone shook 
hands with her and told her she was a brave 
little girl to come alone, she knew that she 
liked him very much indeed. 

“I like going to the dentist, Norman,” she 
said, as she climbed into the buggy. 


CHAPTER XIV 



THE LITTLE GREEN TRUNK 

Elizabeth Ann woke the next morning after 
her visit to the dentist to hear the patter of 
rain on the tin roof of the porch. She had 
been dreaming about the pitcher, dreaming 
that she had glued the pieces together and that 
Aunt Hester had said it looked as good as new, 
and for a moment she was disappointed when 
she realized that the mending was simply a 
dream. Then she remembered something 
pleasant and the broken pitcher was forgotten 
again. 

“Keturah said she was going up in the attic 
to regulate the papers the first rainy day,” 
said Elizabeth Ann to herself. “And she said 
I could go with her.” 

She jumped out of bed and began to dress 
hurriedly. She knew Keturah would be in the 

142 



The Little Green Trunk 143 

kitchen and sure enough she was, mixing muf¬ 
fin batter for breakfast. 

“You said you were going to regulate the 
papers the first rainy day,” said Elizabeth 
Ann excitedly. 

“So I did,” replied Keturah, smiling. 

“And I never regulated anything and I 
would love to,” suggested Elizabeth Ann. 

“Bless your heart, you shall help regulate,” 
promised Keturah. “Wait till after breakfast 
and you and I will tackle that attic.” 

“Before I have to do spelling, or after?” 
asked Elizabeth Ann anxiously. 

“Let’s see, you do your spelling from ten to 
eleven, don’t you?” said Keturah. “Well, if 
you’re sure you know all the words, and Miss 
Hester is willing, I think we might go right 
after breakfast.” 

Elizabeth Ann had seen the attic only once 
or twice when she had gone with Keturah to 
get something from the boxes that were pushed 
under the eaves or from the trunks that stood 
about the walls. Aunt Hester rarely went up 
in the attic and she never asked Elizabeth Ann 


144 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
to go with her. She was willing, however, 
when Keturah asked her this morning, to have 
the little girl go with her, if she would promise 
to be ready at ten o’clock to say her lessons. 
Elizabeth Ann promised and followed Keturah 
up the attic stairs with a happy heart. 

“Now tell me how to regulate, Keturah, 
and I will,” she said. 

Keturah laughed. 

“ ‘Regulate,’ the way I use it, means to put 
things in order,” she explained. “You see 
that mess of papers and magazines over there ? 
That’s the way Norman leaves them when he 
comes up here to read.” 

“Does he come up here to read?” asked 
Elizabeth Ann with interest. “Does Aunt 
Hester?” 

“Your aunt never comes near the attic if 
she can help it,” said Keturah quickly. 

“Perhaps it is too hot,” Elizabeth Ann said, 
pushing back the hair from her eyes. 

“No, that isn’t it,” replied Keturah. “It’s 
the things in those old trunks.” 


The Little Green Trunk 145 

“What kind of things V % asked Elizabeth 
Ann curiously. 

“Oh, things that belonged to folks she 
loved,’’ said Keturah, beginning to sort the 
magazines and papers into orderly piles. “One 
trunk has all her mother’s things in it and one 
belonged to her dead sister, and one is filled 
with old letters.” 

“Could I look at ’em?” whispered Eliza¬ 
beth Ann, touching the lid of a dusty old trunk 
with kind little fingers. “I’d be just as care¬ 
ful.” 

“Well, I don’t know that your aunt would 
care, but then again she might not like it,” 
said the cautious Keturah. “I wouldn’t do it, 
if I were you without asking. But that small 
green trunk in the corner belonged to your 
father—I don’t believe she would mind if you 
saw the things in that.” 

“I’ll go ask her right this minute,” declared 
the eager Elizabeth Ann, whirling down the 
stairs as fast as she could go. 

She was back again, breathless, in a second, 
to tell Keturah that Aunt Hester had given 


146 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
her permission to look at the things in her 
father’s trunk. 

“But she said not to look inside any of the 
others,” reported Elizabeth Ann, “she said so 
without my asking her. So I won’t. Now 
show me Daddy’s trunk, Keturah, please.” 

Keturah led her to the little green trunk and 
turned the key that stood in the lock. She 
turned back the lid and Elizabeth Ann sat 
down on the floor. 

“If I were you, I’d look at the things as I 
took ’em out,” said Keturah, “and then put 
them on the floor. When you are ready to put 
them back, you can place them in the same 
order you found them in.” 

“Were these Daddy’s things when he was a 
little boy?” asked Elizabeth Ann. 

“Yes, they were,” Keturah told her. “Your 
aunt isn’t one for talking, or she would have 
told you about this trunk long ago. Every 
year I go through all the trunks and dust and 
clean them, and little did I think I’d ever 
see the daughter of the little green trunk 
boy.” 


The Little Green Trunk 147 

Elizabeth Ann laughed with pleasure. 

“Is that what you call Daddy?” she de¬ 
manded. “I will write and tell him so. Did 
you know him when he was a little boy, Ke¬ 
turah?” 

“Well, no, because you see I was a little 
girl at that time,” explained Keturah. “When 
your father was spending his summers with 
Miss Hester I was earning my living doing 
housework for the Meltons, a family that had 
a farm over back of the mountain. But I’ve 
always liked that little green trunk and the 
things in it. And lots of times I’ve thought 
that the little boy who owned it must have 
been pretty lonesome in this prim house.” 

Elizabeth Ann lifted out the first thing she 
came to, which proved to be a book. It was 
an arithmetic and there was a spelling book 
and a geography, too. 

“Your father used to have to study during 
vacations, too,” said Keturah, who could not 
be said to be getting on very fast with her 
“regulating” because she would come over 
and talk to Elizabeth Ann. “Miss Hester told 


148 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

me once that she made him write, ‘I must 
learn to spell’ a thousand times because he 
said he hated spelling and didn’t see the use 
of learning it.” 

“Poor little Daddy,” murmured Elizabeth 
Ann indignantly. “I hate spelling, too. But 
Daddy loves Aunt Hester, Keturah; he said 
so, ’fore I came East.” 

“Well I should hope he does,” responded 
Keturah briskly. “Didn’t your'aunt send him 
to school and about bring him up? And she 
made a fine man of him, too, from all I hear. 
All her strictness was for his own good and 
she always meant to be kind. And if you 
think she is strict with you, Elizabeth Ann, 
you ought to hear her tell how strict she was 
with your father.” 

“Was Daddy bad?” asked Elizabeth Ann, 
lifting out a bag of marbles from the trunk. 

“I don’t think he was, at least nothing more 
than mischievous like all boys,” said Keturah, 
“but Miss Hester seems to have always been 
afraid that he would be bad; so she tried to 
stop him before he was.” 


The Little Green Trunk 149 

Elizabeth Ann understood this somewhat 
jumbled sentence and nodded her head. 

“I know,” she said wisely, “like when I’m 
going down to the Yreelands. Aunt Hester 
tells me not to tear my dress when I don’t 
mean to at all.” 

Elizabeth Ann tumbled the marbles into her 
lap and tried to imagine how the “little green 
trunk boy” had looked when he played with 
them. There was a faded box of “Lotto,” a 
game Elizabeth Ann had never played, a 
checker board and checkers and a top. Down 
under the checker board she found two pieces 
of dry twig. 

“What did Daddy do with that?” she asked 
Keturah. 

“I guess he’d remember if you asked him,” 
said Keturah from her pile of papers. “That 
used to be a switch and Miss Hester kept it 
over his bureau. When he did something she 
had forbidden him to do, he had to go upstairs 
and bring the switch down and then she used 
it to make his legs tingle.” 

There were two suits of clothes in the trunk, 


150 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

little wash suits with short trousers and 
jackets. Keturah said that others had been 
given to the orphan home because Aunt Hes¬ 
ter did not believe in hoarding. 

“Will she keep a little trunk of me, do you 
suppose?’’ asked Elizabeth Ann, smoothing 
the sleeves of the quaint jackets. 

“Probably not, but your mother will,” an¬ 
swered Keturah. “Your mother will save all 
your little girl things and some day, perhaps, 
you will have a little girl of your own to open 
the trunk and look at them.” 

Elizabeth Ann stared a little at the idea of 
thinking so many years ahead, but before she 
could say anything in reply to Keturah, they 
heard Aunt Hester calling. 


CHAPTER XV 


A HARD LESSON 

“There! It must be ten o’clock, and time 
for your spelling,” said Keturah, and Eliza¬ 
beth Ann, whose heart had given a little 
thump, was almost glad to remember the 
spelling. 

“I thought maybe Aunt Hester had looked 
for the pitcher and couldn’t find it,” she said 
to herself. “Oh, dear, I wish Victor had 
never touched it!” 

Perhaps she thought too much about the 
broken pitcher and not enough about the 
spelling, but, whatever the reason, Elizabeth" 
Ann failed completely that morning. 

“Have you studied these words at all?” 
demanded Aunt Hester severely. 

“Yes’m,” replied the little girl truthfully. 
“I studied ever so long, Aunt Hester.” 

“When?” asked her aunt. 


152 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

“Yesterday afternoon/ ’ answered Eliza¬ 
beth Ann. “I was sure I knew all the words, 
Annt Hester.’’ 

44 Well, you see you didn’t,” said Aunt Hes¬ 
ter grimly. “Why didn’t you study after 
breakfast this morning?” 

Elizabeth Ann explained that she had 
wanted to help Keturah “regulate” and that 
she had gone up to the attic directly after 
breakfast. 

“But Keturah asked me if I was sure I 
knew my spelling first,” added Elizabeth Ann 
honestly. “I like the attic, Aunt Hester—I 
saw the things in Daddy’s little green trunk.” 

Aunt Hester looked at her sharply. 

“Your father thought he didn’t want to 
learn to spell once,” she said. “Do you know 
how I punished him when he neglected his 
spelling?” 

“Keturah told me—he had to write ‘I must 
learn to spell’ a thousand times,” murmured 
Elizabeth Ann, hoping that Aunt Hester 
wasn’t going to make her do that. 

“He was older then than you are now, and 


A Hard Lesson 


153 


had learned to write passably,” explained 
Aunt Hester. “But that is no reason why you 
should be excused. You can learn to spell, if 
you put your mind on it, Elizabeth Ann; and 
if you won’t put your mind on it without my 
help, why I shall have to help you.” 

Elizabeth Ann waited uneasily. She and the 
little yellow-covered spelling book were not 
very good friends and she had the feeling that 
nothing pleasant could come from any help 
connected with learning to spell. 

“I think we’ll say that every day you miss 
more than two words on the list, you’ll have 
to give up your afternoon playtime,” said 
Aunt Hester slowly. “Now sit down here and 
see if you can learn those words you failed 
in, by dinner time.” 

Poor Elizabeth Ann took the spelling book 
and climbed into one of the rocking chairs, 
but the printed letters danced up and down 
because she was looking at them through tears. 
The afternoon playtime was the nicest part of 
the day, the time between four o’clock—when 
she was through the daily sewing lesson with 


154 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

Aunt Hester—and six, when they had supper. 
To have to give that up would be severe pun¬ 
ishment indeed. 

“I hate spellingI” stormed Elizabeth Ann, 
the tears coming faster and faster. “No won¬ 
der Daddy did, too. I don’t see why any one 
has to learn to spell—you can say what you 
mean without having to write it.” 

Aunt Hester had gone upstairs and Eliza¬ 
beth Ann rocked and cried and, of course, 
learned none of the spelling words, till Ke- 
turah came down from putting the attic in 
order. She was full of sympathy when she 
heard what Aunt Hester had said, but she 
insisted that Elizabeth Ann must let her bathe 
her hot face and eyes and brush her hair for 
dinner. 

“After all,” said Keturah sensibly, “all you 
have to do is to learn the spelling every day 
and then you won’t have to give up your play¬ 
time. And some day you’ll be glad your aunt 
made you learn to spell.” 

“I’m never going to use spelling when I 
grow up,” insisted Elizabeth Ann, but she felt 


A Hard Lesson 155 

better when Keturah had washed her face and 
the sight of the berry pudding browning in the 
oven quite cheered her up. 

The clouds gathered again after dinner, 
though, for Aunt Hester, who never forgot a 
duty, asked Elizabeth Ann to go over her 
spelling a second time and discovered that the 
little girl knew the words no better than she 
had in the morning. Then Elizabeth Ann said 
she would study them instead of taking a nap. 

“There is a time and place for everything/’ 
declared Aunt Hester. “You will take your 
nap as usual, and your sewing lesson after¬ 
ward. Then, instead of going out to play, 
you will study this spelling and recite it to me 
before supper. You can not wriggle out of 
this, Elizabeth Ann, and you will find it quick¬ 
er to obey me without trying to evade.” 

There were times when, as Elizabeth Ann 
had once told her mother, she “liked to be 
bad.’ ? To-day seemed to be one of those times. 
She didn’t want to take a nap, she didn’t want 
to learn to sew and she didn’t want to learn 
to spell. In fact, she didn’t want to do a 


156 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

single thing that Aunt Hester told her to do. 

Sent upstairs, after dinner, for her nap, she 
went to bed with her shoes on, something she 
was strictly forbidden to do. And when Ke- 
turah came in to tell her that Aunt Hester 
was ready for the sewing lesson they had every 
afternoon, the little girl was cross and said 
she didn’t care if she had put her feet on the 
counterpane—Keturah could wash it, couldn’t 
she? 

“Don’t speak to me like that, dear,” said 
Keturah very gravely and gently, and then 
Elizabeth Ann threw her arms about her and 
hugged her and said she was sorry. 

But she had hard work trying to please 
Aunt Hester. The thread knotted and she 
pricked her finger, and the basting, Aunt Hes¬ 
ter said when she inspected it, wouldn’t do at 
all. And, then, after two hours of this, it was 
four o’clock and Elizabeth Ann could fold up 
the cloth and put away the scissors and 
thimble. 

“Where are you going?” asked Aunt Hes¬ 
ter, as Elizabeth Ann started toward the door. 


A Hard Lesson 157 

‘‘Out to play with Antonio,” answered Eliz¬ 
abeth Ann. 

“I always mean what I say, Elizabeth 
Ann, ’ ’ said her aunt. 4 4 Get your spelling book 
and study the words you missed this morn¬ 
ing.” 

Elizabeth Ann burst into a flood of tears 
and rushed from the room, slamming the door 
behind her. She felt that she wanted to get 
as far away from every one as she could and 
the attic seemed to be the only place she could 
think of. Upstairs she fled and opened the 
door that led up the attic stairs. There sat 
Antonio who had probably followed them up 
that morning and not been noticed. Keturah 
must have shut him in when she had finished 
her regulating. 

Elizabeth Ann gathered the kitten up in her 
arms and ran up the attic stairs, straight to 
the little green trunk. It was closed, for the 
orderly Keturah always left things as she 
found them, and she had put away the things 
that Elizabeth Ann had left strewn about when 
Aunt Hester’s voice had called her downstairs. 


158 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
The little girl lifted the lid and climbed in, 
taking Antonio with her. 

“Pmso miserable,” she sobbed, “I wish—I 
wish I was in Japan with my mother!” 

Antonio cuddled down cozily and began to 
purr. He liked the trunk and now that he 
had company he began to think the attic was 
not such a bad place after all. When Eliza¬ 
beth Ann had cried a little more she, too, be¬ 
gan to feel sleepy. With the little faded wash 
suits rolled up for a pillow, she snuggled down 
deeper into the trunk and went fast asleep. 

When she awoke, at first she did not know 
where she was. Antonio, a round little ball 
of fur, felt warm and heavy on her hands. 
It was still sunny in the attic, but long shad¬ 
ows were beginning to creep out from the 
windows and it seemed very still and lonely. 

Elizabeth Ann’s legs were stiff and cramped, 
for she had tucked them under her to make 
them fit into the little green trunk and as she 
climbed out pins and needles began to prickle 
in her left foot which was asleep. 


A Hard Lesson 159 

“I wonder if Aunt Hester is looking for 
me,” she said to herself. 

The nap had made her feel better and she 
was a little ashamed of the way she had acted 
and half afraid to go downstairs and face her 
aunt and Keturah. But she remembered that 
there were to be hot biscuits and honey for 
supper and she was a very hungry little girl. 
So she took Antonio under her arm and 
bravely marched downstairs. 

“ Where were you?” asked Keturah, as Eliz¬ 
abeth Ann peeped shyly into the kitchen. 
“You’d better hurry and get ready for sup¬ 
per; I’m taking up the biscuits now.” 

Aunt Hester said nothing at all, merely 
talked at supper about the trouble Mrs. Hem¬ 
inway had had to make the butter come that 
afternoon. 

The next morning Elizabeth Ann studied 
her spelling eagerly and when it came time 
for Aunt Hester to hear her, she spelled every 
word correctly. 

“That is very nice,” said her aunt approv¬ 
ingly. “You see what you can do when you 


160 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
put your mind to it, Elizabeth Ann. Now this 
afternoon, when you are through sewing, you 
will have to learn this second list of words, 
because you are a day behind with your work. 
And after this, try to do each day’s lesson as 
you go along.” 

Elizabeth Ann had not expected this, but 
she took the list of words Aunt Hester had 
marked and resolved to learn them all. She 
went out on the kitchen stoop after her sewing 
that afternoon and while Keturah shelled peas 
she studied each word over and over. Keturah 
heard her spell them and before supper was 
ready Elizabeth Ann had recited the words to 
Aunt Hester and it was clear that she would 
have her playtime free the next day. 

“But putting your mind to spelling is aw¬ 
fully hard work,” the little girl confided to 
Keturah. 


CHAPTER XVI 


A WEDDING INVITATION 

Elizabeth Ann, in spite of spelling and sew¬ 
ing, soon learned to be happy at Maple Spring. 
For one thing, there was Keturah who was 
always ready to listen and admire and sym¬ 
pathize and whose supply of cookies was ap¬ 
parently endless. If Aunt Hester had been 
willing, Keturah would have emptied the 
cookie jar every day for Elizabeth Ann. Ke¬ 
turah never found a little girl in her kitchen 
a “bother” and on baking days Elizabeth Ann 
generally contrived to be there, helping to stir 
and taste and, usually, with a bit of dough of 
her own to do with as she pleased. 

Then the cats were surely a great comfort. 
Antonio followed her all about the place and 
the others soon learned to know her as well 
as they did Keturah. Obadiah, who was a 
161 


162 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

famous mouser, insisted on bringing each 
mouse or rat he caught to show Elizabeth Ann 
and when he laid the little gray bodies at her 
feet and looked up into her eyes asking for 
praise, Elizabeth Ann, as she told Keturah, 
“tried to smile at him,” though she pitied the 
dead mice, even if they did try to get into the 
pantry. 

But it was the Vreeland children, after all, 
with whom Elizabeth Ann spent her sunniest 
hours. Wherever a Vreeland child was, there 
was sure to be something interesting going on 
and though Aunt Hester often wished there 
were other children living near for her niece 
to play with, Elizabeth Ann was confident no 
other children could ever take the place of 
these friends. 

“We’re going after wild-flowers again,” 
yictor said a day or two after the trouble 
with the spelling lesson. “You want to come ?” 

Victor was nine. He was always playing 
truant from school but, as he explained, he 
really knew a lot of things without going to 
school at all. For instance he was fond of 


A Wedding Invitation 163 

flowers and knew the different kinds. He could 
find wild-flowers where no one else could. 

Aunt Hester said that Elizabeth Ann might 
go on the wild-flower hunt the next day, which 
was Saturday. Victor said they would start 
early, at half-past eight from the Vreeland 
house, and a few minutes before that time, she 
walked down the road to he ready to go with 
them. 

“Hello,” Vinton greeted her. “Wait a 
minute till we tie up Van Buren and Viola.” 

Valeria, the baby, was asleep in her coach 
in the yard, and Valentine was already tied 
to the tree. Elizabeth Ann knew now that the 
three younger children were tied so that their 
mother could go on with her washing and not 
have to worry about them running away. 

“Come on, we’ll get out of sight before they 
begin to cry,” said Vinton, when he had knot¬ 
ted the clothesline securely. “Hurry, kids.” 

Vinton was twelve years old and Elizabeth 
Ann liked him very much. He was never im¬ 
patient with his smaller brothers and sisters 


164 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

and he was not half as 44 bossy’’ as Victor who 
loved to give orders. 

The little procession started off, followed by 
the loud wails of the three children left be¬ 
hind. Violet, of course, was away at work, 
and Vincent was helping in the grocery store 
as he did every Saturday. But four of the 
Vreeland children and Elizabeth Ann and Os¬ 
wald, who went everywhere that Victor did, 
were determined to bring home large bunches 
of flowers. 

44 We’ll go up back of the Ferguson woods ,’ f 
planned Victor. 44 There’s a field up there 
just covered with daisies. Violet said the min¬ 
ister was wishing for some daisies to trim the 
church for Sunday—let’s get some.” 

They trudged down the road and were about 
to turn to make a short cut across the field 
when a cheery voice hailed them. 

44 Hey, there, you youngsters!” some one 
called. 

The children looked back, and saw a motor 
car coming up behind them. A girl all in 
white was driving, and a young man sat beside 


165 


A Wedding Invitation 

her. Elizabeth Ann recognized him at once. 
He was the young man who had loaned her his 
suit-case to sit on in the train. He knew her, 
too. 

“Well, if it isn’t my little friend,” he said 
pleasantly, raising his cap. “Edith, remem¬ 
ber I told you about the little girl who gave 
me a stick of orange candy? By the way, 
what became of all that candy?” 

“It’s gone now,” sighed Elizabeth Ann. 
“But it lasted me a long time; Aunt Hester 
wouldn’t let me have more than one stick a 
day. I have the jar on the bureau in my 
room.” 

“Do any of you know where we can get some 
daisies?” asked the young man hurriedly. 
“We need heaps of daisies the worst way! 
You see, there is going to be a wedding at 
four o’clock, and at the last minute the city 
florist has wired that his green-houses were 
burned out by fire last night and he can’t 
decorate.” 

“And we must have some flowers,” urged 
the girl, who was very pretty and had a charm- 


166 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
ing smile. “We thought you could tell us 
where to find some.” 

“Sure, I know a field where there are tons 
of daisies,” said Victor confidently. “We 
were going to get some for the minister to 
have to-morrow. Want me to show you?” 

“How far is the place?” asked the girl. “I 
really ought to go back to the church and help 
the girls, Jim.” 

“It’s a field ’bout half a mile from here,” 
explained Victor. “Back of Ferguson’s 
woods.” 

“You all pile in in the back of the car,” 
said the young man suddenly, “and we’ll drive 
back to the church. Then you can help the 
girls, dear, and the children and I will go after 
daisies. We’ll bring you all we can find.” 

Elizabeth Ann and the delighted Vreelands 
climbed into the back of the car and Oswald 
was lifted in, too. Then the girl turned the 
automobile and they sped back, past the Vree- 
land house and Aunt Hester’s, to the little 
Kyeville church. 


A Wedding Invitation 167 

“Who’s going to be married?” asked Victor 
curiously. 

“Miss Stacey is the bride,” answered the 
young man, while the pretty girl blushed, “and 
I am the groom.” 

At the church a crowd of young girls came 
rushing out to greet them. They were all 
“summer residents” as Aunt Hester called the 
people who had handsome homes along the 
South road and who went to the city for the 
winter. Elizabeth Ann did not know any of 
them. 

“Did you get any flowers?” shrieked the 
girls. “We bought all the white satin ribbon 
we could find at the store.” 

“We’re going to bring you back bushels of 
daisies,” said the young man, taking the 
wheel, while Miss Stacey jumped out and went 
into the church. 

Then he turned the car again, made Victor 
sit up front with him to tell him where to go, 
and they were off. 

They found the field a mass of lovely daisies, 
just as Victor had said, and the children picked 


168 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

busily. The young man clipped the stems to 
an even length with his pocket knife and tied 
the flowers into large bouquets with a ball of 
twine he took from his pocket. 

“Isn’t it fun?” said Elizabeth Ann to Viv¬ 
ian Vreeland. “I guess I’ve picked a hun¬ 
dred, haven’t you?” 

They continued to pick, until the young man 
looked at his watch and said it was noon and 
that they must go back. He made the children 
get into the car first and then piled the flowers 
into their laps. 

“I wish I had a camera to take your pic¬ 
tures,” he said, smiling. “ You look as though 
you were a float in a flower parade.” 

They found the girls still busy at the church 
and they all made a great fuss over the flow¬ 
ers. The children helped carry them in and 
then were turning to go when the young man 
hurried after them. 

“Here, where you going?” he asked. “I 
haven’t paid you yet.” 

“We’ll be late to dinner,” explained Vin¬ 
ton. “We don’t want any pay, thank you. 


A Wedding Invitation 169 

Ma won’t like it. Anyway, it was just fun 
getting the flowers.” 

“But you’ve given up the whole morning,” 
protested the young man. “Of course I meant 
to pay you—I would have to pay a florist. 
Hey, Edith,” he broke off to call to the pretty 
girl, “come here a moment, can’t you?” 

She came over to him and he explained. 

“These children won’t take any money af¬ 
ter all they’ve done,” he said. “Can’t you 
make them see it’s all right?” 

“Mrs. Vreeland wouldn’t let them, Jim,” 
she answered at once. “She works for Aunt 
Carol, and I know how she feels about the 
children taking money. Maybe they would 
like to come to the wedding this afternoon?” 

“Wouldn’t we just!” exclaimed Vivian, her 
eyes shining. “I never saw a real weddin’.” 

“Well, then, you come to mine, all of you,” 
the pretty girl invited them. “I’ll speak to 
the ushers so that you will have a good seat. 
And, Jim, you see that they get some cake and 
ice-cream afterward, won’t you?” 


170 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

“I certainly will,” promised the young man 
heartily. 

Elizabeth Ann was as much excited at the 
prospect of going to a wedding as the Vree- 
land youngsters. She had never seen a “real” 
wedding, and like Vivian she was delighted 
to have such an invitation. They hurried 
home, for it was nearly half-past twelve, talk¬ 
ing eagerly of the wedding all the way. 

“We’ll wait till quarter of four for you and 
if you’re not here we’ll go on and meet you 
at the church,” said Vivian, as Elizabeth Ann 
left the Vreelands at their gate. “It’s at four 
o’clock you remember.” 

Elizabeth Ann ran all the rest of the way 
home, but Aunt Hester and Keturah were at 
the dinner table when she reached there. 


CHAPTER XYII 


A VERY NAUGHTY LITTLE GIRL 

‘‘Elizabeth Ann,” said Aunt Hester se¬ 
verely, “this is the last time you go off with 
those Yreeland children; you are three-quar¬ 
ters of an hour late for dinner and have kept 
Keturah and me waiting. You’ll have to go 
without dessert to help make you remember 
to be punctual.” 

“I’m sorry,” murmured Elizabeth Ann, 
slipping into her chair. “We were helping 
for a wedding.” 

She saw that the dessert was strawberry 
shortcake, the first of the season. Aunt Hes¬ 
ter was just finishing hers. Elizabeth Ann 
tried hard not to cry. 

“Could I stop sewing at half-past three 
this afternoon, Auntie?” she asked coaxingly. 
“I’m invited to a wedding at four o’clock.” 

171 


172 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

Then she told about the pretty girl and the 
young man and how they had picked daisies 
to decorate the church. 

“I must say I’m surprised you should ask 
me such a thing,” said Aunt Hester firmly. 
“I don’t know the Staceys at all—they are 
summer people. And I don’t want you galli¬ 
vanting around everywhere with the Vree- 
lands. No, you can not go—the Lorings don’t 
accept those last minute invitations.” 

Poor Elizabeth Ann ate her dinner silently. 
She was hungry after the busy morning and 
Keturah had saved the choicest bits of every¬ 
thing for her. She would have given her short¬ 
cake after Aunt Hester left the table, if she 
had dared. 

“I think it’s mean!” cried Elizabeth Ann 
as she finished and pushed back her plate. “I 
want to go to the wedding—they’re all going. 
I didn’t mean to be late for dinner.” 

“There, there, dearie, don’t get to crying,” 
soothed Keturah. “Of course you wouldn’t 
be late to dinner on purpose, but there is noth¬ 
ing your aunt hates worse; maybe she will let 


A Very Naughty Little Girl 173 
you go to the wedding if you ask her again 
this afternoon.’’ 

But Keturah knew that Aunt Hester seldom 
changed her mind, and so did Elizabeth Ann. 
She went up to her room for her nap after 
dinner feeling very much abused. There were 
several letters and postals on her bureau, one 
from her mother and one from Rosa in Cali¬ 
fornia. Mr. Robert had sent a card from 
Canada, and this Elizabeth Ann put away to 
save for the Yreelands. Vinie, as they called 
Violet, had shown her the cards she was sav¬ 
ing to paper the room with one day, and Eliz¬ 
abeth Ann had promised to keep all her postal 
cards. She had written her friends to send 
extra ones, but her request could not be an¬ 
swered in a hurry, they were all so far away. 

Elizabeth Ann heard Aunt Hester go into 
her room for her nap and then a naughty 
notion popped into the little girl’s head. 

“I could get dressed and go before she 
wakes up,” she said to herself. “I’ll hide 
somewhere till quarter of four and then call 


174 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
for the Yreelands; if I’m not here to sew, 
Aunt Hester can’t keep me.” 

Any seven-year-old girl knows when she is 
deliberately disobeying and Elizabeth Ann 
knew that she was very naughty indeed. But 
she told herself she did not care. Moving very 
quietly, so as not to make a noise, she got out 
her pink linen frock and her best hair-ribbon 
and her pink socks and black patent leather 
slippers. She took great satisfaction in wear¬ 
ing the socks because she knew that Aunt Hes¬ 
ter disapproved of them. 

When she was dressed, she opened her door 
softly and crept downstairs and out of the 
house. Then she ran as hard as she could, not 
daring to look back. No one called after her, 
however, and when she had made the turn in 
the road which hid her from the house, she 
felt safer. 

It was only about quarter of two, and she 
did not want to go to the Yreelands so early. 
Aunt Hester might send Keturah after her, 
she thought. So for what seemed hours to 
her, she walked up and down, dodging back 


A Very Naughty Little Girl 175 
of an old spring house whenever she saw any 
one coming. She did not dare sit down on the 
grass, for fear of mussing her frock. At last 
she decided she might go to the Vreeland house 
and when she turned in at their gate, she saw 
them coming out, headed by Vinton. 

i ‘It’s only half past three, but we thought 
we’d better start,” he said. “We were going 
to your house to tell you, but now we can go 
right to the church.” 

They were almost the first guests at the 
church, but the usher had evidently heard of 
them, for he did not seem at all surprised to 
see them. He led them to a pew in the center 
of the aisle and they settled into their seats 
to wait for something to happen. 

‘ 4 Don’t the daisies look pretty?” whispered 
Vivian. 

The flowers were tied to each pew with great 
bows of white satin ribbon and the pulpit was 
almost hidden under more daisies. 

Presently the organist began to play and 
the guests to arrive and soon the church was 
crowded. All at once every one stood up and 


176 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

Elizabeth Ann heard the lady in the pew 
ahead of her whisper, “Here they come!” 

Down the aisle came the bride and an old 
gentleman with a white mustache beside her, 
and six pretty girls in pink gowns following. 
They all carried bouquets of roses. 

“Where’s the groom ¥” said Victor in a loud 
whisper. “He said he’d be here.” 

Several people heard and laughed and then 
Elizabeth Ann saw that the young man was 
standing with the bride before the minister, 
though she had not seen him come in. 

The children could not hear much of the 
marriage service, but it was all over very soon, 
and the organist began to play again, while 
the pretty girl, her veil thrown back, came up 
the aisle leaning on the arm of the young man 
who was now her husband. They both smiled 
as they passed the children, and the bride 
stopped for a brief second to kiss Elizabeth 
Ann who sat nearest the aisle. 

The guests waited till the procession was 
out of the church, then rose and slowly fol¬ 
lowed them. There were a great many auto- 


A Very Naughty Little Girl 177 
mobiles waiting, and a crowd of the town 
people who wanted to catch a glimpse of the 
bride. 

“You’re the Vreeland youngsters, aren’t 
you?” said the usher who had shown them 
their seats in the church, coming up to Vinton. 
“Well, Jim Marshall told me to tell you he’s 
sent ice-cream and cake out to your house and 
that you’re to eat all you want, if your mother 
will let you.’* 

“Hurrah!” cried Victor, starting to run. 
“Come on, let’s get the ice-cream.” 

Elizabeth Ann had been quite happy during 
the wedding, but now she began to feel very 
queer indeed. As she walked home with the 
Vreeland children she sincerely wished that 
she had not gone to the wedding, lovely as it 
had been to see the pretty bride and their 
flowers so beautifully arranged. 

“No, I don’t want any ice-cream,” she said, 
when Vivian tried to make her turn in at the 
Vreeland gate. “I have to go home right 
away.” 

“But some of it’s yours,” urged Vivian. 


178 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
“You picked more flowers than I did, Eliza¬ 
beth Ann. Come on in—Ma will think we 
didn’t ask you if you don’t.” 

“You tell her I had to go right home, Yin- 
ton,” begged Elizabeth Ann. “I just can’t 
come in.” 

“I think you’re the queerest girl!” scolded 
Yivian, but Yinton said that Elizabeth Ann 
should do as she pleased. 

Elizabeth Ann saw that Aunt Hester was 
on the porch, and if the ground had opened 
and swallowed her right up, the little girl 
would have been thankful. But nothing like 
that happened, and she had to open the gate 
instead and go up the front walk, knowing 
that Aunt Hester was gazing at her pink 
socks. 

“Where have you been, Elizabeth Ann?” 
said Aunt Hester sternly. 

“To—to the wedding,” murmured Eliza¬ 
beth Ann desperately. 

“Go up to your room and stay there until I 
come to you,” said Aunt Hester. “And I want 
to find you undressed and in bed when I come.” 


A Very Naughty Little Girl 179 

Elizabeth Ann obeyed unhappily and was 
curled up in bed in a little ball when Aunt 
Hester came upstairs. 

“I didn’t think you would deliberately dis¬ 
obey me, Elizabeth Ann,” she said sadly. 
“When you did not come down to the porch 
this afternoon for your sewing and Keturah 
could not find you, I knew where you had 
gone; I could have come for you, or sent after 
you. But I thought if my own niece cared no 
more for my wishes-” 

“I wish I hadn’t gone,” wailed Elizabeth 
Ann. “I wish I hadn’t. And I didn’t stay 
for ice-cream, honestly I didn’t, Aunt Hes¬ 
ter.” 

“Very well, I’m glad you didn’t,” said her 
aunt. “You must be punished, of course. You 
will have only bread and water for your sup¬ 
per to-night, and for one week you can not go 
out of the yard.” 

Elizabeth Ann knew that meant she could 
not drive to town with Norman or go to the 
Yreelands’ to play. 

Aunt Hester now walked over to the bureau 



180 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
and opened the second drawer. Elizabeth 
Ann could not see from the bed what she was 
doing, and she couldn’t think what in the 
world there was in her bureau to interest her 
aunt. 

“There, Elizabeth Ann,” announced Aunt 
Hester, closing the drawer. “I have taken 
out all your socks and will keep them for you 
in my bureau drawer. I see you are not to 
be trusted with them.” 

She went away and Elizabeth Ann was left 
alone. 

Nor did Keturah bring up the supper of 
bread and water an hour later, but Aunt Hes¬ 
ter herself, who waited to see that Elizabeth 
Ann ate every crumb and drank the glass of 
water, too. Keturah would have brought at 
least one sugar cookie, Elizabeth Ann was sure 
and probably Aunt Hester had the same 
thought. Aunt Hester might not believe in 
spanking, as Mrs. Vreeland did, but she cer¬ 
tainly did not allow small sinners to escape 
punishment. 


CHAPTER XVIII 


AUNT HESTER FINDS OUT 

The week that followed seemed very long to 
Elizabeth Ann. Aunt Hester did not refer to 
her disobedience again, but neither did she 
help her niece out when explanations were 
needed, and it seemed to Elizabeth Ann that 
every one insisted on knowing why she could 
not go out of the yard. 

The very next afternoon, which was Sun¬ 
day, the minister came to dinner and asked 
why Elizabeth Ann had not been at church 
that morning. Then during the week there 
was Norman who wanted her to go to town and 
had to be told the reason why she couldn’t. 
Victor Vreeland, who came for the milk Mon¬ 
day morning, was sorry for her but, he said, 
she had been silly to run away to the wedding. 

“Your aunt’s awful strict, every one says 
so,” he told her. “Say, the ice-cream was 

great—three kinds in a brick; it came from 
181 


182 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

the city, Ma says. I saved you one of the 

cakes.” 

He pulled a cake with green icing from his 
pocket. It was wrapped in tissue paper and 
though it was rather crumbly, Elizabeth Ann 
ate it gratefully. 

“Your aunt never found out the pitcher 
was broken, did she?” asked Victor, who was 
sitting on the back porch waiting till Keturah 
had time to get him the milk for the baby. 

“No,” admitted Elizabeth Ann. “But don’t 
you think I’d better tell her? She’ll be so 
mad if she ever finds out.” 

“You mustn’t tell—you promised you 
wouldn’t!” said Victor in great alarm. “Look 
what she’s done to you for only running off 
to the wedding—going to bed without any sup¬ 
per ’cept bread and water and can’t go out of 
the yard for a week; she might have me ar¬ 
rested! Anyway, my ma will lick me, if Miss 
Hester tells her. You won’t tell, will you, 
Elizabeth Ann?” 

“No,” promised Elizabeth Ann. “No, I 
won’t tell. 1 *’ 


Aunt Hester Finds Out 183 

But the thoughts of the broken pitcher wor¬ 
ried her for the next few days. Then she for¬ 
got it again. 

The seven cats and Antonio, especially An¬ 
tonio, were a great comfort to her during the 
week she was forced to stay in the yard. The 
white kitten had long ago outgrown his basket 
and his brothers and sisters had been given 
away. Jeptha, his mother, had gone to live 
with Mrs. Heminway and catch mice for her, 
and Antonio followed the seven tortoise-shell 
cats everywhere. They did not always want 
him, but that made little difference to him. 
He simply went where they did. 

‘‘You’ll have a lot of postals to take Vinie 
next week, won’t you?” said Keturah one 
morning when the postman had driven up and 
left a bundle of mail for Elizabeth Ann in the 
box at the gate. 

There were two dozen cards in an envelope 
from Mr. Robert, several postals from Mother 
and Daddy, and three from Rosa. Mother also 
sent some stamps for Peter, Rosa’s brother. 

‘H)o you think I ought to tell Mother about 


184 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

the wedding and what I did?” asked Eliza¬ 
beth Ann anxiously. 

She had brought her little writing tablet 
and pencil out on the back porch where Ke- 
turah was shelling peas. Elizabeth Ann could 
print nicely, but she could not do it very fast 
and this week when there were so many things 
she could not do, seemed a good time to get 
her letters written. 

“No, I wouldn’t write her that, if I were 
you,” replied Keturah sensibly. “You can 
tell her everything when you see her, but I 
think it is a good plan to put only pleasant 
things in a letter. Long before your mother 
reads it, you and your aunt will have forgotten 
that you were naughty and ran away to the 
wedding, and your mother will be feeling sorry 
when it is all over.” 

Aunt Hester and Elizabeth Ann sewed every 
afternoon, and the little girl was learning to 
make very pretty patchwork. The pile of 
little pieced blocks in the pasteboard box was 
growing steadily, and Aunt Hester promised 
that as soon as there were enough of them 



< «* -^"* „* .. >. . » — 

•* . -. 


■v» —« v 


Aunt Hester and Elizabeth Ann sewed every afternoon. 






















































































































Aunt Hester Finds Out 187 

Elizabeth Ann should be taught how to make 
the quilt. 

“When you have finished this quilt for your 
mother,” Aunt Hester said one afternoon 
when Elizabeth Ann had patiently ripped out 
a block without frowning, “I will give you 
one of my quilts for your very own; you may 
choose any one you like.” 

Elizabeth Ann found that if she tried seri¬ 
ously to please her aunt, learned her spelling 
thoroughly and did not shirk the sewing, she 
and Aunt Hester were really quite happy to¬ 
gether. 

“Perhaps if you do like some one they will 
like you,” said Elizabeth Ann to herself. 

The long week finally wore away as all 
weeks do, and Elizabeth Ann was so glad to 
be able to go out of the yard! She drove to 
town again with Norman and ran down the 
road to play with the Yreeland children as 
though she had been kept a prisoner for a 
month. 

One morning she came in from paddling in 
the brook—she was expert at that now, and 


"188 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

did not get her skirts wet—and found a. 
strange horse and buggy tied at the gate. 

“It’s an antique man,” explained Norman 
who was cutting the grass. “He’s come to see 
your aunt.” 

The man was just coming out of the door 
then, and Elizabeth Ann waited till he had 
climbed into his buggy and driven off, before 
she asked her question. 

“What is an antique man?” she wanted to 
know. 

“An antique man,” replied Norman, stop¬ 
ping his lawn mower to answer, “is a man 
who goes around buying old things; lots of 
’em come to see Miss Hester. It’s well known 
she has old furniture and dishes worth a for¬ 
tune; but she won’t sell one of ’em.” 

“Elizabeth Ann!” called Keturah, coming 
out on the front porch. “Elizabeth Ann, your 
aunt wants you.” 

Elizabeth Ann ran in, hoping that Aunt 
Hester wanted her to go after something at 
Mrs. Heminway’s. She loved to go there. 

But Aunt Hester was in the dining-room. 


Aunt Hester Finds Out 189 

She stood before the dish closet and looked 
worried and anxious. 

“Elizabeth Ann,” she said without turning, 
“have you seen anything of my Colonial 
pitcher ? I am sure I put it back of the fruit 
bowl and when that man was here I couldn’t 
find it to show him.” 

Elizabeth Ann felt her heart give a funny 
leap. She had actually forgotten the pitcher. 
She wanted to run and she didn’t dare. She 
wanted to cry, and the tears wouldn’t come. 
So she just stood there, her face growing hot¬ 
ter and hotter, and saying nothing. 

Aunt Hester turned around and some¬ 
thing in Elizabeth Ann’s face made her speak 
sharply. 

“Why don’t you answer me?” she said. 
“Do you know anything about that pitcher?” 

Keturah came in from the kitchen at that 
moment where she had been looking in the 
pantry. 

“I thought we might have put it on the 
top shelf, but I can’t find it,” she announced. 

“Elizabeth Ann!” said Aunt Hester 


190 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

again. “ Answer me instantly 4 —do you 
know anything about my Colonial pitcher ?” 

The little girl nodded. There was such a 
lump in her throat that she couldn’t speak. 

“Where is it?” demanded Aunt Hester. “I 
told you never to touch it. What have you 
done with it?” 

“I didn’t do anything to it,” Elizabeth Ann 
managed to whisper. 

“Of course she didn’t!” said Keturah in¬ 
dignantly. “She wouldn’t touch it after she 
was told not to.” 

“You keep still, Keturah ,’ 1 said Aunt Hes¬ 
ter. “Elizabeth Ann, what do you know about 
my pitcher?” 

“It’s—it’s broken,” stammered the little 
girl. 

“Broken!” repeated Aunt Hester, sitting 
down on the nearest chair. “Broken! And 
who broke it, pray?” 

Elizabeth Ann remembered her promise to 
Yictor. She shut her eyes tight and gulped. 

“Nobody broke it,” she declared hurriedly. 

“Elizabeth Ann Loring!” cried Aunt Hes- 


Aunt Hester Finds Out 191 

ter. “Do you mean to stand there and tell me 
that my pitcher is broken and that nobody 
broke it? I never heard such nonsense. Tell 
me the truth at once—did you break it?” 

“Oh, no I” said Elizabeth Ann. “I didn’t 
break it, honestly I didn’t, Aunt Hester.” 

‘ 4 Then who did ? ’ ’ insisted her aunt. “ Don’t 
be afraid to tell me the truth—if you touched 
the pitcher after I forbade you and broke it, 
that is bad enough; but to lie about it is ten 
times worse. Who broke my pitcher, Eliza¬ 
beth Ann?” 

“Nobody,” repeated Elizabeth Ann stub¬ 
bornly. 

Aunt Hester sighed and Keturah looked 
puzzled. 

“Well, when did nobody break it?” said 
Keturah suddenly. “What became of it— 
where is it now?” 

Elizabeth Ann was frightened at these ques¬ 
tions. She was determined not to tell on Vic¬ 
tor, but she did not know what to say next. 

“The pieces are buried under the rose 
bush,” she said miserably. 


CHAPTER XIX 


SORROWFUL DAYS 

Aunt Hester looked at Keturah and Ke¬ 
turah looked at Aunt Hester. 

“Under the rose bush?’’ they said together. 

Then Aunt Hester stood up and asked Ke- 
turah to bring her the fire shovel. 

“Show us where you buried the pitcher, 
Elizabeth Ann,” she said sternly. 

Elizabeth Ann went out into the yard and 
Aunt Hester and Keturah followed her. The 
little girl went to the rose bush where she and 
Victor had buried the pieces of the broken 
pitcher and began to dig. 

“There’s a piece now!” cried Keturah, 
bending down to pick up a blue and white 
piece of china the shovel turned up. “It’s the 
handle, Miss Hester!” 

Sure enough it was the handle, and in a few 

192 


193 


Sorrowful Days 

moments Elizabeth Ann had dug up all the 
pieces. Keturah put them in her apron and 
they went back to the kitchen. 

“Now Elizabeth Ann, I want the truth 
about this,” said Aunt Hester firmly. “When 
did you break the pitcher?” 

“I didn’t,” cried Elizabeth Ann. “I didn’t 
break it at all.” 

“Well, when did you bury the pieces?” 
asked Aunt Hester. 

“The day you went to Thomaston,” said 
Elizabeth Ann slowly. 

“Where was I?” demanded Keturah. 

“You went to see Mrs. Heminway,” Eliza¬ 
beth Ann told her. 

“And you say you didn’t break it and yet 
you buried the pieces,” said Aunt Hester. “I 
don’t know what to think of you, Elizabeth 
Ann. I’ll give you one more chance, the last: 
who broke my Colonial pitcher?” 

Elizabeth Ann looked at her imploringly. 

“Nobody,” she whispered. 

Aunt Hester frowned angrily. 

“That will do,” she said. “Dear knows it 


194 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

is bad enough to find that you can’t be trusted, 
but the moment my back is turned you handle 
the very things you have been forbidden to 
touch, but to know that you are also stub¬ 
bornly untruthful is too much. You go up in 
your room, Elizabeth Ann, and you stay there 
until you are ready to tell me the truth.” 

Elizabeth Ann went slowly out of the 
kitchen. She did not cry until she reached her 
room. Then she flung herself on her little 
white bed and cried and cried and cried. 

“I never can tell her about Victor,” she 
sobbed. “I promised, and a promise just has 
to be kept—Daddy always says so. I wish, I 
wish, I could see Daddy and Mother.” 

The visit of the antique man had been made 
just before dinner, and the discovery of the 
broken pitcher had put all thoughts of eating 
out of every one’s head. It was almost one 
o’clock when Keturah brought up a little tray 
for Elizabeth Ann. 

“It’s nothing but bread and water,” said 
Keturah, putting the tray down on the bureau 
and coming over to the bed. “My dear child, 


Sorrowful Days 195 

you mustn’t cry like this; you’ll be sick. Can’t 
you tell Keturah about the pitcher?” 

Elizabeth Ann shook her head. She did not 
want any dinner she said. 

‘‘Honestly I didn’t break the pitcher, Ke¬ 
turah,” she whispered, putting her arms 
around kind Keturah’s neck. 

“Well, Lamb, that’s all right if you didn’t,” 
replied Keturah, stroking the hair from the 
little girl’s hot forehead. “But if you didn’t, 
who did ? Tell who did, or explain how it hap¬ 
pened, and your aunt will be satisfied. That 
pitcher was worth most two hundred dollars, 
you know.” 

Elizabeth Ann knew that Victor would never 
be able to pay two hundred dollars for the 
pitcher, and neither would his mother. No, 
whatever happened to her, she must not tell 
that his dog broke the pitcher that unlucky 
morning. 

“Keturah!” called Aunt Hester from down¬ 
stairs. 

“I mustn’t stay!” said Keturah, rising to 
go. “ You won’t tell me, honey ? ’ ’ 


196 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

“I did tell you—nobody broke it,” repeated 
Elizabeth Ann, beginning to cry again. 

Keturah kissed her without saying anything 
and went out of the door. 

The afternoon seemed hours long to Eliza¬ 
beth Ann. She drank the water, but could not 
eat the bread, and then she stood a long time 
by the window pressing her hot eyes against 
the cool glass. She was standing there when 
Aunt Hester opened the door and came into 
the room. 

“I hope you have been thinking about what 
you have done, Elizabeth Ann,” she said. 
‘‘Are you ready to tell me who broke the 
pitcher?” 

Elizabeth Ann knew that her aunt expected 
her to say, “I broke it, Auntie,” and that if 
she said “nobody” again, Aunt Hester would 
probably be very angry. So she said nothing. 

“I see you are still stubborn,” said Aunt 
Hester, after waiting a few moments. “You 
may undress and go to bed; Keturah will bring 
up your supper. You might just as well give 
in now, Elizabeth Ann—you can not leave this 


Sorrowful Days 197 

room till you tell me the truth, and the sooner 
you make up your mind to that, the better.’’ 

Aunt Hester went away, and Elizabeth Ann 
undressed and crept into bed. She wanted her 
mother very much, that dear mother who al¬ 
ways put her arms around her little girl and 
kissed her, when she was naughty as well as 
when she was good. Aunt Hester seldom 
kissed any one. 

“Here’s your supper, dearie,” said Ke- 
turah when she came up with the tray. “And 
I do wish you’d be a good girl and tell about 
the pitcher. I made fresh sponge cake for 
supper and Miss Hester says you can’t have 
any.” 

Elizabeth Ann ate her oatmeal gruel and 
milk while Keturah waited, and then when 
she had finished Keturah went away again. 
Neither she nor Aunt Hester came to Eliza¬ 
beth Ann’s room again that night, and the 
little girl cried herself to sleep for the first 
time in her life. 

Things were just as bad in the morning. 
Elizabeth Ann, to all questions, insisted that 


198 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

“nobody” had broken the pitcher, and even 
Keturah, her firm friend, lost patience. As for 
Aunt Hester she was more stern than ever 
and declared that Elizabeth Ann should have 
nothing but bread and water to eat until she 
would tell the truth. 

“ Unless you tell me soon, I shall have to 
write to your mother,” she said that night 
when Elizabeth Ann still refused to tell any 
more. 

This made Elizabeth Ann cry harder than 
ever, because she thought she couldn’t tell her 
mother about Victor, and what would she think 
when she heard Aunt Hester’s side of the 
story ? 

In the morning Elizabeth Ann felt very 
queer. She had not slept very well and had 
pulled all the covers off so that the bed looked 
as though it had been through an earthquake. 
When Keturah brought up the bread and 
water which was to be her breakfast, she 
found Elizabeth Ann sitting up with red 
cheeks and bright eyes and begging for a 
drink. 


Sorrowful Days 199 

“My mouth is so hot,” complained the poor 
child. 

Keturah placed a hand on her forehead and 
felt of her wrists. 

“I’m going to get your aunt,” she said 
quickly. 

And she went after Aunt Hester though 
Elizabeth Ann called after her and begged her 
not to. 

“She’ll only ask me who broke the pitcher,” 
she wailed. 

But Keturah came back in a minute and 
brought Aunt Hester with her. 

And Aunt Hester did not ask about the 
pitcher. She felt of Elizabeth Ann’s hot 
cheeks, as Keturah had done, and then 
wrapped a blanket around the little girl and 
lifted her in her arms. 

“I’m going to take you in my room, dar¬ 
ling,” she said, and Elizabeth Ann had never 
heard Aunt Hester speak that way. “It is 
cooler in there and not so sunny. You go down 
and get her a nice breakfast, Keturah.” 

Aunt Hester put Elizabeth Ann in her own 


200 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

bed, and sponged her face and hands for her. 
When Keturah brought up the pretty break¬ 
fast of strawberries and cream and toast and 
milk, Elizabeth Ann could not eat it, though 
she tried to, to please her aunt. All she 
wanted was the milk, for that was cold to 
drink. She had a fever, you see. For three 
days she was ill and uncomfortable and Aunt 
Hester took care of her and tried to help her 
get well. She rubbed her head when it ached, 
she told her stories when she could not sleep. 
She was never cross or impatient and she 
never mentioned the pitcher. 

Then, by and by, the fever went away, and 
Elizabeth Ann felt much better. Aunt Hester 
would not let her get up, but she did let her 
cut out paper dolls on the bed and, when Eliz¬ 
abeth Ann asked her, brought her the box of 
patchwork. They had lovely afternoons to¬ 
gether, sewing, and Elizabeth Ann felt that 
she really loved her aunt and that Aunt Hes¬ 
ter loved her. If only she had not promised 
Victor to say nobody broke the pitcher! 

“We’re going to have company, Elizabeth 


201 


Sorrowful Days 

Ann,” said Aunt Hester, coming into the room 
one morning with Elizabeth Ann’s breakfast 
on a tray. “I’ve just had a letter from your 
Aunt Jennie, and she will be here on the 3.45 
train this afternoon to pay us a little visit.’ 2 

“I never saw her, did I?” asked Elizabeth 
Ann, thinking how hungry she was and how 
good the breakfast looked. 

‘ ‘No, you never did, and she wants to see 
you very much,” replied Aunt Hester. “You 
are to visit her, you know, this summer; she 
lives at the seashore.” 


CHAPTER XX 


AUNT JENNIE SETS THINGS EIGHT 

Aunt Hester said she thought that Eliza¬ 
beth Ann might get up to see her Aunt Jennie, 
if the little girl would promise to be very quiet 
and not become excited or race about. Eliza¬ 
beth Ann promised. She felt a bit excited but 
after Aunt Hester had helped her dress and 
had brushed her hair and put on the best pink 
hair-ribbon, Elizabeth Ann was glad to settle 
in the big Morris chair in the bay window. 
She did not feel in the least like racing about. 

It was after dinner when Elizabeth Arm was 
dressed and (since her illness nap time had 
been almost forgotten for she took naps all 
day long in bed) Aunt Hester said that it 
would not be long before they might look for 
Aunt Jennie. Norman and Ebenezer and the 
carriage had gone to the station to fetch her. 

“It’s nice to see you downstairs, dearie,” 
said Keturah, peeping into the sitting room 
202 


Aunt Jennie Sets Things Right 203 

where Elizabeth Ann sat. Aunt Hester had 
gone upstairs to change her dress. 

“Keturah,” whispered Elizabeth Ann, “ lis¬ 
ten, is Aunt Hester mad about the pitcher yet ? 
Did she say anything about it'?” 

“Not a word since you’ve been sick,” said 
Keturah promptly. “Now, child, don’t go 
make yourself sick over that again; maybe 
you’ll never hear another thing about it.” 

“Yes, I will,” thought Elizabeth Ann, 
though she did not say so to Keturah. “Aunt 
Hester will wonder how I broke it without her 
knowing it; she really thinks I smashed it, I 
know she does.” 

Elizabeth Ann was right. Aunt Hester had 
not forgotten the pitcher. She thought about 
it every day. But she was determined not to 
ask Elizabeth Ann another question about it 
until she was well and strong again. Aunt 
Hester was very kind always to sick people. 
When Aunt Hester came downstairs, wearing 
her best black silk dress, Elizabeth Ann had 
a question to ask her. 

“If you are my Daddy’s aunt and that 


204 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

makes you my great-aunt, Keturah says,” 
asked Elizabeth Ann, “is Aunt Jennie Dad¬ 
dy’s auntie, too? Is she my great-aunt?” 

“No indeed, she is your own aunt,” ex¬ 
plained Aunt Hester. “It is like this, dear: 
your Aunt Jennie is the widow of your father’s 
older brother who died several years ago. He 
was much older than your father. Jennie is 
my niece, just as your mother is. She calls 
me ‘Aunt Hester’ just as you do.” 

Elizabeth Ann was still puzzling over this 
when she heard the sound of wheels. 

“Whoa!” shouted Norman, though Eb- 
enezer was always very willing to stop at the 
gate. Keturah said he would rather stop than 
go on, any day. 

“They’ve come!” cried Aunt Hester. “You 
sit still, Elizabeth Ann; I must go welcome 
Jennie.” 

Elizabeth Ann leaned forward and looked 
through the window with interest. She saw 
a little woman, such a pretty little woman with 
pansies on her hat and fluffy white ruffles 
showing outside her coat, jump down from the 


Aunt Jennie Sets Things Right 205 

carriage and hug Aunt Hester warmly. Then 
she shook hands with Keturah who had come 
out to get her bag, and the three came up the 
walk together. 

“So this is my little niece!” said Aunt Jen¬ 
nie, walking into the sitting room and straight 
up to the Morris chair. “Why, Elizabeth Ann, 
I love you dearly already!” 

Aunt Jennie bent down and kissed the little 
girl. Elizabeth Ann saw that the new aunt 
had brown eyes and curly gray hair. Some¬ 
how she was reminded of Mother, though Eliz¬ 
abeth Ann’s mother had brown hair and her 
eyes were blue. 

Aunt Jennie took off her hat and jacket and 
sat down to visit as though she had always 
lived with them and had just been away for a 
little visit. They talked till supper time and 
Elizabeth Ann found that Aunt Jennie had 
six children, one a little girl six months older 
than Elizabeth Ann. Her name was Doris. 

“And she is planning all kinds of good times 
for you when you come to see us this sum¬ 
mer,” added Aunt Jennie. 


206 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

Elizabeth Ann had never seen the ocean, and 
the prospect of spending two months at Sea- 
bridge, where Aunt Jennie and her children 
lived, was vastly exciting. 

Of course Elizabeth Ann had to go to bed 
very soon after supper, and then Aunt Hester 
told Aunt Jennie about the broken pitcher. 
And what do you think Aunt Jennie said? 

“Elizabeth Ann didn’t break it,” she said 
positively. “Iam sure she didn’t. She would 
have told you if she had.” 

“That’s what Keturah has said all along,” 
answered Aunt Hester. “But Jennie, when I 
ask Elizabeth Ann who broke it she says ‘no¬ 
body.’ That doesn’t make sense.” 

Aunt Jennie laughed merrily. 

“It makes sense to her,” she said, still 
laughing, “and, if we could get her to explain, 
it would make sense for us.” 

The next morning Aunt Jennie was out in 
the kitchen when Victor Vreeland came for 
the milk. Elizabeth Ann was not up yet and 
only Keturah was about. She went down 


Aunt Jennie Sets Things Right 207 

cellar to get the milk, and Aunt Jennie spoke 
pleasantly to Victor. 

“That’s a happy looking little dog you 
have,” she said. “What is his name?” 

The dog, who sat under the table, wagged 
his tail gratefully. Dogs know when they are 
being praised. 

“His name is Oswald,’^ replied yictor. 
“Keturah named him for me.” 

Just then Oswald dashed for the cellar door 
and ran downstairs. He may have thought he 
saw a mouse. He came running up again in a 
moment, Keturah scolding behind him. 

“You tie your dog outside after this, Victor 
Vreeland,” she said angrily. “He bumped 
into me and almost made me spill the pan of 
milk. You know I don’t allow any one in my 
cellar!” 

Victor took the pail of milk she handed him 
and made for the kitchen door, Oswald fol¬ 
lowing him. 

“I didn’t let any one down your old cellar,” 
he told Keturah. “A dog isn’t anybody—he’s 
a dog.” 


208 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

Aunt Jennie jumped up quickly. She had 
promised Keturah to go with her to look at 
her chickens, but now she said she had some¬ 
thing she must do before breakfast. 

That something took her straight to Eliza¬ 
beth Ann’s room, where the little girl, already 
dressed in a clean blue gingham frock, was 
trying to tie her hair-ribbon. 

“Let me do that for you, dear,” said Aunt 
Jennie. “I am so used to tying bows, I think 
I could do it just by feeling. Doris wears 
socks—don’t you?” 

“Aunt Hester won’t let me—she doesn’t 
like ’em,” explained Elizabeth Ann sadly. 

“Never mind, you’ll have plenty of time to 
wear socks,” Aunt Jennie comforted her. 
“Now, dear little girl, I want to ask you one 
question: did a dog break Aunt Hester’s blue 
and white pitcher?” 

Elizabeth Ann opened her mouth and her 
eyes wide in surprise. No wonder she was 
startled, for she had not known that Aunt 
Jennie knew anything about the Colonial 
pitcher. And here she had found out all about 
it, apparently. 


Aunt Jennie Sets Things Eight 209 

i( ‘Didn’t Victor Vreeland’s dog, Oswald, 
break it, dear?” urged Aunt Jennie. “You 
mustn’t be afraid to say yes, if he did; Aunt 
Hester won’t be too hard on Victor.” 

“It wasn’t a story—Victor said it wasn’t,”* 
said Elizabeth Ann, beginning to cry. “Os¬ 
wald is a dog and a dog is nobody—Victor says 
so.” 

“Well, I think Victor should have been 
willing to say a little more,” declared Aunt 
Jennie, sitting down and taking Elizabeth Ann 
on her lap. “Tell Auntie just how it hap¬ 
pened, dear, and then we’ll explain to Aunt 
Hester.” 

So Elizabeth Ann told everything, from the 
time they were paddling in the brook to the 
moment when she came downstairs and found 
the pitcher in pieces on the kitchen floor and 
Victor insisted that “nobody” had broken it. 
And Aunt Jennie said that it was never wise 
to promise not to tell when accidents happened 
because, while a broken pitcher might be very 
serious, hiding the fact that it was broken 
was much worse. 

When Aunt Hester heard the story, at first 


210 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 
she was inclined to be angry with Victor, be¬ 
cause he had let Elizabeth Ann have all the 
trouble and worry of the pitcher alone and 
had never said a word when he knew she was 
being blamed. But Elizabeth Ann pleaded so 
earnestly for him, and begged that Aunt Hes¬ 
ter wouldn’t scold him or tell his mother or 
refuse to give him milk for the Vreeland baby, 
that at last her aunt promised not to punish 
him at all. 

“But I’ll never let that Oswald dog into the 
kitchen again,” scolded Keturah when she 
heard how the pitcher was broken. “He made 
all this trouble.” 

“Perhaps he did,” said Aunt Jennie, smil¬ 
ing, “but remember, Keturah, he helped me 
find out that it wasn’t Elizabeth Ann who 
broke the pitcher. If Victor hadn’t said a dog 
wasn’t anybody, I might never have guessed.” 

So Keturah said she would give Oswald a 
bone now and then, and that pleased Elizabeth 
Ann who thought Oswald was a very nice little 
dog, indeed. 


CHAPTER XXI 


aunt Hester's party 

“What are you thinking about, Elizabeth 
Ann?” asked Aunt Hester. 

She and Elizabeth Ann were sitting out on 
the porch, both sewing on pieces of patchwork. 
Elizabeth Ann could sew nicely now and the 
quilt was almost finished. Aunt Jennie had 
gone home to Seabridge and her little niece 
was to follow in three weeks’ time. 

“I guess I was thinking about Mother, 
some,” said Elizabeth Ann, answering Aunt 
Hester’s question. “And about the quilt, 
some. And—and about the Yreeland children 
some more.” 

Aunt Hester laughed a little. 

“I thought you looked as though you were 
thinking hard,” she said kindly. “I think it 
would be nice if we had a* little party before 
you left and invited the Yreelands; what do 
211 


212 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

you think, dear? Would you like to have 
a party?” urged Aunt Hester. “We could 
have the table out under the trees and you 
and I could plan a little gift for each of the 
children.” 

“Oh, yes, let’s!” cried Elizabeth Ann, find¬ 
ing her voice with a rush. “Something for 
every one of them, Aunt Hester. Only I don’t 
suppose the baby will come,” she added 
thoughtfully. 

“No, but we’ll ask them all,” said Aunt 
Hester, “and those that are too young to come 
can have their presents just the same, for we’ll 
send them home to them. What do you think 
would be nice to have to eat ?” 

Elizabeth Ann began to plan and Aunt Hes¬ 
ter helped her and all the rest of that after¬ 
noon while they sewed they talked about the 
party. The patchwork quilt was really hand¬ 
some and Elizabeth Ann was proud of it. She 
was sure her mother would be delighted to 
have a quilt made by her little girl, and Aunt 
Hester said she thought so, too. 

“But it doesn’t look much like a quilt,” 


213 


Aunt Hester’s Party 

said Elizabeth Ann, folding up her work and 
slipping her thimble into her work-box as 
Aunt Hester had taught her when Keturah 
came to call them to supper. 

“ Mercy, child, of course not—it must be 
quilted,” explained Aunt Hester. “I thought 
Keturah and I could do that for you this sum¬ 
mer, and then when you have finished your 
visit with Aunt Jennie you’ll come back to 
Maple Spring for a week or so and we’ll pack 
the quilt for you to take home with you.” 

“Am I coming back to Maple Spring?” 
asked Elizabeth Ann in surprise. 

“That is the way the plans stand now,” re¬ 
plied Aunt Hester. “Don’t you want to come 
and see us again, dear?” 

“Yes, I do,” said Elizabeth Ann gravely, 
and Aunt Hester stooped and kissed her 
quickly. Aunt Hester did not often kiss any 
one. 

Well, six of the Vreeland children came to 
the party, leaving the four youngest at home. 
Violet came, for the minister’s wife said that 
no one should miss a party if it could possibly 


214 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

be helped, and Vincent stopped working 
specially for that one afternoon. Keturah had 
been busy for three days making good things 
to eat, and when the Vreelands saw the table 
set out under one of the big maple trees on the 
lawn they simply gasped. 

“Isn’t it lovely!” cried Violet. “I never 
ate out of doors with a tablecloth before; we 
don’t bother to set the table when we eat out.” 

“But this is a party,” said Elizabeth Ann 
wisely. “That’s different.” 

First they had a peanut hunt, and even 
Vincent, who thought he was getting too old 
for games, forgot his age and laughed and 
shouted with the others. Elizabeth Ann had 
told Aunt Hester about this game and she and 
Keturah had hidden the peanuts all over the 
lawn and porch. When all the nuts were 
found that could be found, and were counted, 
Victor had the most so he was given the prize. 
This was a book about wild-flowers, and 
Victor was so pleased he wanted to sit right 
down and read it. 

They played several more games and ended 


[Aunt Hester’s Party 215 

up with hide-and-seek which is one of the 
nicest outdoor games as well as one of the 
oldest. Then Keturah was seen carrying a 
large platter of sandwiches toward the table 
and Aunt Hester said it was time for “ re¬ 
freshments.” 

How the Yreelands did enjoy that supper! 
There were three large plates of sandwiches, 
each a different kind, and all the milk they 
could drink. There was chicken salad served 
in scooped-out tomatoes. And ice-cream and 
cake, of course. Aunt Hester was as sure as 
Elizabeth Ann that no successful party was 
ever given that didn’t have ice-cream and cake 
somewhere in it. 

“Now we have to go to the post-office,’ 2 an¬ 
nounced Elizabeth Ann. 

“The post-office!” repeated Vincent. “I 
didn’t know you went to the post-office after 
supper. Are you looking for something 
special?” 

Elizabeth Ann giggled. 

“The post-office is up on the porch,” she 
said. “Come on, I’ll show you.” 


216 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

The Vreeland children raced after her and 
on the porch they found a square little booth 
that said “Post-Office” in big black letters 
over the single opening. Aunt Hester sat at 
this opening, smiling at them. She had hur¬ 
ried away while they were at supper and 
placed it on the porch. 

“Ask her, is there any mail for you,” urged 
Elizabeth Ann, pushing Violet forward. 

“Mail for Miss Violet Vreeland?” repeated 
Aunt Hester, just like the postmaster in town. 
“Here’s a package for you.” 

They all crowded around while Violet 
opened her package. There was a rose-colored 
sweater for her, just the kind of pretty thing 
the summer girls of her age wore. Violet was 
so delighted she could hardly thank Aunt Hes¬ 
ter. 

“Now Vincent, you ask,” said Elizabeth 
Ann, almost dancing with joy and excitement. 

She knew what was in each package, for she 
had helped Aunt Hester buy the gifts and tie 
them up, but it was just as much fun to watch 


Aunt Hester’s Party 217 

the Vreelands untie their presents as though 
she did not know what they were. 

There was something for each child and 
four little gifts to be taken home to the younger 
children with a square white box for Mrs. 
Vreeland that Elizabeth Ann knew was choco¬ 
lates from the city such as Mrs. yreeland had 
probably never tasted. 

“Miss Elizabeth Ann Loring,” read Aunt 
Hester, when all the yreeland packages had 
been handed out. 

Now it was Elizabeth Ann’s turn to be sur¬ 
prised. She had not thought there was a pack¬ 
age for her. She opened it to find a little gold 
thimble with her name engraved on it and a 
little card that said “With love from Aunt 
Hester.” Elizabeth Ann was as pleased as 
could be and she tried the thimble on at once 
and found it fitted perfectly. 

When the Yreelands had finally gone home 
—“the loveliest party we ever heard of,” they 
told Aunt Hester shyly—Elizabeth Ann wan¬ 
dered out into the kitchen and found Keturah 
busy setting her bread. 


218 Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring 

“Keturah,” said the little girl seriously, 
“why is Aunt Hester different ? She’s so nice 
and she doesn’t scold half as much as she used 
to. Don’t you think she is ever so much 
nicer?” 

Keturah stirred her bread sponge thought¬ 
fully. 

“I’ll tell you what I think,” she said. “I 
think Miss Hester is just used to having a 
little girl around now, that’s all. She never 
had a little girl of her own, you see, and you 
have to get used to ’em, same as anything 
else. You thought she was cross when she 
only wanted to help you to grow up into the 
kind of woman she wants you to be. Miss 
Hester has always been real sweet down un¬ 
derneath; now you’re just seeing her being 
sweet on top, too.” 

Elizabeth Ann really understood Keturah’s 
rather odd explanation. She wondered about 
Aunt Hester till the bread was all mixed and 
covered with a clean cloth and set away. Then 
she went out on the porch. 

Aunt Hester was sitting in her rocking 


Aunt Hester’s Party 219 

chair, knitting, her needles flashing in her 
skillful fingers. Elizabeth Ann went and stood 
beside the chair. 

“Aunt Hester,” she whispered softly, “I 
love you very much.” 

Aunt Hester put down the knitting and 
lifted Elizabeth Ann into her lap. 

“And I love you, darling,” she said ten¬ 
derly, “more than words can tell.” 

And then Elizabeth Ann asked Aunt Hester 
to tell her again what the ocean looked like and 
what little girls did at the seashore. Aunt Hes¬ 
ter had visited at Seabridge, where Aunt Jen- 
nie lived, and she could tell her little niece 
about the beach. If you are interested in learn¬ 
ing what Elizabeth Ann thought of the great 
blue Atlantic Ocean, and what good times she 
and her cousin had together, the next Elizabeth 
Ann book will tell you all about it. It 
will be called “Elizabeth Ann’s Six Cousins,” 
and lively adventures they all have together 
you may be sure. 


THE END 




































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